Second Time Around
by AshleyPorter
Summary: Sequel to Second Chance! Yaoi. Two years later and everything has settled down. Or, at least, so they thought. A new problem arises and a trip to the past may be more than anyone bargained for.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hey, look! A sequel! I actually finished it! gasp! Shocking, right?

THIS IS A SEQUEL, READ SECOND CHANCE BEFORE READING THIS!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. At all.

Pairings: Soriku, Akuroku. Don't like it? Don't read it.

Warnings for the story in general: Language, violence, suggestive conversations and interactions, oh, and AU.

I think that's all, enjoy!

* * *

"Hey Riku, could you help me?"

It's not that I hate Riku, cuz I don't, it's just that I don't like him. It's not even for the reason that most people would think it is. Considering our past one would think that it was because of the way he acted when I first arrived here. That's not the case.

Although it doesn't help the matter any.

"With what Sora?"

That. That right there is why I don't like him.

Riku was looking over my cousin's shoulder at the math book that was open in front of him. That didn't bother me. The fact that he was nearly in Sora's lap and making sure every bit of them that could possibly be touching was touching, however, did.

It was painfully obvious to everyone that Riku had it bad for Sora.

Everyone, that is, except Sora.

It was never that big a deal really. I personally didn't have a problem with his preference. Who was I to judge? It was more along the lines of the fact that it was my cousin whom he had set his sights on.

The minute I found out that Riku was going to be living with us I offered up my room and said I'd bunk with Sora. Sora had been thrilled; he had taken it as a sign that I was going to be nicer to Riku. Riku had glared at me as though I would burst into flames if he glared long enough. Cloud had caught my eye and I knew that he knew that we both knew, even if Sora didn't.

"I don't get what this wants from me."

Riku shifted under the pretense of getting a better look at the book. He and I both knew that he could have seen it just fine from where he was; he just wanted to be closer to Sora.

"Sickening, isn't it?"

I jumped about a foot in the air and spun to see a very amused Axel standing behind me, "Don't do that!"

"Well maybe if you hadn't been so focused on planning Riku's demise you would have heard me come in," the red head replied cheekily.

"I wasn't plotting his demise."

"Right, you look at people like that cuz you love them."

I sent him a dark look, "That's not funny."

"I donno, I was amused."

"You would be," I muttered.

There was a pause where I resumed my glaring at Riku who was now explaining the math problem to Sora before I turned my attention back to Axel, "What brings you here?"

The pyro shrugged and pulled out his lighter, flicking it opened and closed as he often did when he was bored or nervous, "Nothing exciting. I had some time to kill."

"Time to kill?"

"Before my next class. I was too lazy to go all the way home. Your house is much closer."

"I still don't see why you take classes so late in the day."

"And miss out on sleeping till noon? You insane Rox?"

"Maybe," I replied with a slight smile.

"Oh... I get it..." Sora said, cutting through our conversation and reminding me that I was supposed to be glaring at Riku.

Riku seemed to sense that I was thinking about him since he turned and shot me a rather smug smirk. I growled at him under my breath and Axel, sensing the impending fight that would surely break out, grabbed my arm and steered me out of the kitchen and onto the front porch.

I sent the door a dark look as though it was entirely its fault and walked down the front steps, "He is driving me insane."

Axel lit up a cigarette and took a deep drag before blowing out a graceful stream of smoke, "Cool your jets Rox."

I glared at him, "You don't have to live with him."

Axel shrugged, "True enough, but if he wasn't living with you, where would he be living?"

I was tempted to say that I didn't give a damn, but the fact of the matter was that I did. If I hadn't cared then I wouldn't have helped Leon, Vincent, and Zack with Riku's custody case. Figures, I help get the guy away from his abusive dad and he goes out of his way to piss me off.

This is why I don't like most people.

"Where we going?" Axel asked, taking another drag.

I gave a slight shrug, "I donno, I usually just walk and I arrive somewhere eventually."

Axel chuckled, "Aren't you worried you'll get lost?"

"Hardly," I said, shooting him a look over my shoulder.

"I thought you didn't hate Riku?"

"I don't hate him," Axel made a disbelieving noise, "I just don't like him all over Sora!"

"You've become awfully protective of your cousin. Isn't he technically older than you?"

"Only by a few months," I muttered, then spoke to him again, "And of course I'm protective of him. Have you met Sora?"

"Many times believe it or not."

I shot him a glare and he grinned cheekily at me.

"The point is, he's a good kid. He's still innocent despite everything that's happened over the years. I'm not going to let Riku ruin that innocence," I said tiredly.

"They've been best friends since forever," Axel pointed out, stubbing out the last of his cigarette on a stone wall as we passed it, "you really think Riku would do something to hurt him?"

"I donno, I mean, is Sora even into guys?"

There was a pause where we both thought back and considered this.

"Well," Axel said after a moment, "I've never seen him show an interest in anyone."

I frowned a little, "Me either... which is odd cuz, well, he's Sora."

Axel nodded his agreement, "Could be a closet case, or maybe he just isn't looking. I doubt he'd be good at hiding feelings like that."

I smiled and shook his head, "No, hiding his feelings is definitely something Sora cannot do."

Axel shot me a sideways look, "But you can."

I blinked then looked at him, "What do you mean?"

"You're good at hiding your true thoughts. Maybe he's been watching you."

"I doubt he could pick up something like that just from watching me."

"He's pretty perceptive, more so than anyone else gives him credit for. I bet he could pick up on our habits and mimic us if he tried."

"I don't think so..." I said, but I was a little uncertain.

"And you two have been living together for two years now. Sharing a room for quite a bit of it."

"But how could he possibly..."

"And he has gotten your glare down pretty well."

That caused me to stop and turn to look at him fully, "What?"

"Your glare. The 'Glare of Death and Destruction' as Selphie likes to refer to it as. His is almost as good as yours."

I blinked a few times before I started walking again, "Since when does he glare?"

Axel chuckled, "Well, when I saw it was when Tidus shoved him out of the tree house."

I paused thinking back, "Yeah, I couldn't see his face from where I was standing."

Axel grinned, "He looked just like you."

I scowled at him, "You're amused by this, aren't you?"

"Just saying, he's picking up on things that you do. Maybe he's better at hiding his emotions than you think."

"The only way he knows how to hide emotions is behind a smile. He only hides when he's upset."

Axel blinked, "He gets upset?"

"See? It's not obvious, but after sharing a room with him I've found there are subtle differences between his normal smile and his 'I'm hiding my pain' smile."

"See? He can hide his emotions."

"But hiding behind a mask like mine would make it really obvious. He wouldn't copy me. Besides, he can't hold all that emotion in for extended periods of time."

"What do you mean?"

"He can hold it back for a while but he eventually breaks down. Usually he just holds it in until he gets home or something like that. If he ever liked someone, one of us would know about it. He wouldn't be able to keep it from everyone without acting all jittery and nervous like he was when we weren't telling his friends about the death threat."

Axel paused an nodded, "Alright, fair point. I think that's the most I've ever heard you talk."

"Never had anything to say."

He chuckled, "You know why you don't get along with Riku?"

"Hm?"

"You're too much alike."

"We are not!"

"Yes you are, you're quiet, broody, hide behind a mask of indifference, and you both have this thing about needing to protect Sora."

I came to a stop in front of a swing set at a park that was a few blocks from Cloud's house, "You're wrong."

"Alright, if that's what helps you sleep at night."

I glared at him and he grinned, "That glare looks much deadlier on you than Sora."

"What about me?"

Axel and I both jumped and spun around. Of course this meant that I hit the swing that I had stopped in front of so I ended up knocking myself off balance and flipping over the swing, landing on my back hard enough to knock the wind out of me.

It took me a moment to realize that the rest of the people there were laughing at me. It took them another moment to realize I wasn't getting up and glaring at all them. The laughter rather abruptly came to a stop and I could hear them jogging over.

"You alright Roxas?" Sora asked, leaning over me.

I sent him a half hearted glare and Axel shook his head, "Knocked the wind out of yourself. Brilliant Rox."

He got a full-blown glare and he grinned at me. The swing above me moved and I glanced in its direction to see that it was Riku. Fabulous.

"Smooth," Riku said with a smirk.

I flipped him off since I couldn't get enough air to say anything. I got a disapproving look from Sora for it, but I was alright with that. Riku didn't seem to mind either since his smirk widened at me. I decided it best to ignore him and focus on taking a full breath so I'd stop this hiccupping breathing that was making me light headed.

Sora shook his head a little, "Anyway, what about me?"

Axel waved his hand a little, "I was just saying how you're getting better at glaring but Roxas' is still much more scary."

Riku snorted and moved his knee off the swing. I closed my eyes and slowly let out a breath before sitting up and brushing the sand off me.

"I thought you were doing math homework," were the first words out of my mouth once I had enough air to say them.

"We finished it," Sora replied with a small shrug.

Axel fell into the swing next to the swing that attempted to kill me. Sora sat back in the sand next to me and Riku walked off with his hands in his pockets. He did that a lot, walked away whenever Sora decided to interact with me outside the household. It was rather annoying.

Sora turned to watch Riku go and sighed quietly. Axel and I looked at one another, both of us wondering the same thing; could Sora actually return Riku's feelings?


	2. Chapter 2

Check chapter one if you want to know anything. I'd rather not type it all up again.

* * *

I groaned and reached over blindly to turn off my alarm clock that was screaming shrilly in the early morning silence

I groaned and reached over blindly to turn off my alarm clock that was screaming shrilly in the early morning silence. After a moment I found the wonderful button labeled as 'snooze' and slowly sat up. Shifting from across the room told me that Sora was half awake and that the second alarm would finish the job.

I smiled a little; it was time for my favorite past time.

I quickly dressed and grabbed the remote off the top of my nightstand. The second alarm went off and Sora sighed, getting up tiredly. I walked out of the room, cheerfully spinning the remote between my fingers.

Cloud was already in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee. He didn't even look up from his paper as I walked into the room. I grinned, paused in the doorway, and hit the power button on the remote. I waited a moment before hitting the little plus sign a few times and hitting play.

I was instantly rewarded with the sound of Metallica's _Fuel _starting up at full blast. There was a loud thud from upstairs and Cloud glanced up as the light fixture swayed above his head. Sora stumbled down the stairs, his face pulled in a grimace and one hand over his ear.

"That wasn't very nice Roxas," Sora said as soon as he reached the kitchen.

I waved him off, "I have to get him back somehow."

Cloud snorted into his coffee as Riku stormed down the stairs. I smiled sweetly at him and hopped onto the counter to make enough room for both him and Sora to pass.

Riku shot me a death glare from hell before starting to make his breakfast. I just grinned and popped some bread in the toaster. Mornings were quickly becoming my favorite time of day.

* * *

"What's got you in such a good mood?" Olette asked from her spot next to me on the stairs.

I leaned back and grinned again, "I spent the morning torturing Riku."

Axel snorted from above me, "What happened to not hating him?"

"I don't hate him, but if he's not going to be nice to me, I'm not going to be nice to him."

"No matter how much Sora pouts?" Zexion asked knowingly, not bothering to look up from his book.

I scowled at him, but otherwise ignored him. It was lunchtime and as per usual Olette and I met up with Axel, Demyx, and Zexion on the front steps of the college to eat. Luckily it was a small island so we could make it back to class on time.

"You're just mad because you made yourself look like an idiot yesterday," Axel commented as he lit his cigarette.

"You made yourself look like an idiot and we missed it? What the hell?" Demyx asked with a grin.

I shot Axel a glare, "Thanks for reminding me."

"What'd you do?" Zexion asked.

Axel blew out a stream of smoke and smirked, "Sora startled him and he managed to flip himself over a swing and knock the wind out of himself."

There was a second of silence before they all burst out laughing. I could feel myself slowly turning red and glared at Axel who winked at me. One of these days I was going to punch him.

Olette giggled then leaned an arm on my shoulder, "Aw, poor Roxas."

I glared at her, not amused in the least. She laughed at my glare and I sighed in defeat. I glanced toward the street and blinked upon seeing an obviously upset Sora running over to us.

Axel must have seen him too since he stood up, "What's wrong Sora?"

He came to a stop in front of us and gasped for air, "Did you see it?"

"See what?" Zexion asked confused.

"The news flash, it's all over town. Kadaj broke out of prison," Sora replied.

A slightly stunned silence followed before we all exploded, "What?"

Sora nodded a few times, "Vincent called me, the PD's looking into it, but they have no idea of where he could have gone or how he even got out."

I cursed and I knew I wasn't the only one as I heard a few different curses come from around me. This was bad, this was so bad.

"Where's Riku?" Olette asked.

"Home," Sora replied, "which is where Vincent wants us to be."

I nodded and got up, grabbing my bag.

Olette grabbed my arm and I looked at her, "Be careful you two."

We both nodded before heading back home at a rather quick pace.

* * *

"How could this have happened?" Cloud asked as Sora and I walked in.

"If I knew that then it wouldn't have happened to begin with," Vincent replied.

"Hey guys," Zack greeted us cheerfully as always.

We gave him a wave and I went to put my bag in our room. I blinked when I found Riku sitting on Sora's bed. I dropped my bag to the floor next to my bed and raised an eyebrow at him.

"I know you hate me," he said without preamble and I started to say otherwise, but he held up his hand and I fell silent, "but if Kadaj does come after us I want to help. Sora's my best friend and I care about him as much as you do. Truce?"

I frowned a little in confusion. I really didn't hate him, I didn't, but if even he thought so then maybe I had been too hard on him. I held out a hand to him and I could see some of the tension leave his shoulders as he took my hand.

"Truce," I agreed.

* * *

"So here's the thing, we have no idea where Kadaj would go," Leon said to the group at large as we all sat around the living room.

"With his dad, brother, and cousins in jail, that doesn't leave many relatives to run to," Vincent expanded a little.

"And he can't just come here and try to off you guys since him breaking out was known almost the second he did it," Zack said with a wave of his hand.

"Thanks," Cloud cut in dryly.

"And with everyone looking for him it's unlikely he'd stay anywhere on this island," Leon concluded.

"So… where would he go?" Sora asked.

All eyes turned to Riku who gave a slight shrug, "What about wherever he was staying before he came back two years ago?"

"It's being watched," Zack said with a sigh.

I frowned at a thought that popped in my head, "What about his mother?"

There was a rather sudden silence before Vincent spoke up, "We never did find her."

"I bet you he's with her then," Riku said.

"This whole thing did start because he was looking for her," Sora agreed.

"But where could she be?" Zack asked, "I mean, there are so many different places she could have disappeared to-"

I cut him off, "Disappeared to."

Everyone looked at me and I expanded on my train of thought, "Anyone and everyone who has ever wanted to disappear goes to the same place."

"What? I've never heard of such a thing," Sora said, confused.

Riku looked equally confused but the others in the room didn't. They all sat back with understanding written on their faces.

"Midgar," Cloud said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Midgar," I agreed without hesitation.

* * *

"Wait, what?"

"That's what they said."

"But, that's suicide."

I sighed tiredly. I had spent most of the night listening to this exact argument and I didn't want to have to relive it. I shook my head a little at Axel, even if he couldn't see me. I shifted the phone to my other ear and leaned back on my bed.

"It's not suicide," I said, too tired to put any real conviction behind it.

"Uh huh," Axel said in a disbelieving tone.

"Look," I said, in annoyance this time, "Either we go to him or he comes to us. End of story. He may not even be there."

"It's still dangerous," Axel said, sounding a little angry himself.

"It's going to be dangerous no matter what we do, or perhaps you forgot the last time that Kadaj came after us. We're going on the offensive this time. We're going to make him do the running."

Axel sighed, this time in defeat, "Alright, I see your point. Just be careful Rox."

"Who do you think you're talking to? I won't do something stupid."

"Uh huh," Axel said, this time in disbelief.

"Thanks for that vote of confidence."

He laughed and I couldn't help but smile, "I need to get some sleep. I'll call as soon as I can."

"Alright, bye Rox."

"Bye Axel."

I hung up and closed my eyes. I really was tired, but I was also scared, worried, and anxious. We were going to Midgar, all of us. We were going to my hometown, a place I never wanted to see again. Vincent had decided that he, Leon, and Zack were going to go down there and investigate. The only problem was that would leave us open to an attack should we have been wrong. The solution: bring us with them.

Besides, Sora had always wanted to see the city that myself and the others complained about so much and Riku wanted to know if it was really as bad as we all said it was.

It would be like a vacation.

Only not, at all.

I was jerked rather rudely from my thoughts as Sora (and I knew it was Sora even with my eyes closed since he was the _only_ one who would ever jump on the bed) bounced onto my bed. I opened an eye and looked at him expectantly.

"Flight leaves in a few hours, they want us to get packed," Sora said, looking just as tired as I felt.

I groaned, closing my eyes again, "What is with them and not letting us sleep?"

Sora laughed and hopped off the bed. I could hear him moving around the room and I sighed, getting up to pack as well.

We worked silently for a little while before Sora asked, "What did Axel say?"

"That it was suicide and to be careful," I replied.

There was another pause and I knew that Sora was debating with himself before he spoke again, "I think he likes you Rox."

The watch I had been holding found its way out of my hands and to the ground all on its own. I turned to look at Sora, confused.

"What?"

"I said I think he likes you. He talks to you all the time and he's always looking out for you."

"It's called being a friend. Riku does the same for you," I internally cringed at that. Sure I knew that I had just proved Sora's point, but I doubted that Sora did.

"But Riku and I have known each other all our lives," I let out a silent breath of relief that he didn't catch on to my blunder, "You and Axel have known each other for two years."

"Yeah, but look what has happened in those two years. Life or death experiences make people close."

Sora frowned, "You're not close to Riku, Tidus, or Wakka."

"No," I agreed, "but Axel and I have a common past. It was easy to relate to him."

Sora sighed in defeat and I felt my shoulders relax a little as I leaned down to pick up my long forgotten watch. As I did so I mentally cursed Sora to hell and back for being so perceptive yet ignorant at the same time. A heavy silence fell between us as we packed and I knew that I had to say something or Sora would feel bad for the rest of the day.

"Riku and I called a truce," the words were out of my mouth faster than I could process them.

It was Sora's turn to whip around in surprise, "What?"

"We've called a truce. We're going to try to get along and not go out of our way to get each other back," I expanded a little.

Sora's face instantly lit up and I was rather suddenly glomped, "That's great! You two will be friends, I know you will!"

I sighed and patted him on the head before extracting myself from the hug and zipping up my bag, "Ready?"

Sora nodded and grabbed his own bag. We nearly ran into Riku in the hallway and the three of us headed down the stairs to meet with the others.


	3. Chapter 3

Check the first chapter for need to know info.

* * *

"I can't believe you didn't tell us!"

I cringed and moved my cell phone away from my ear. Even two thousand miles away Olette was something to fear.

"I didn't have time to tell everyone," I said, trying to placate her, "that's why I told Axel. I knew he'd tell the rest of you."

"Roxas James Hikari," I cringed again, full names never led to anything good, "if anything happens to you I am never speaking to you again."

I sighed, "Give me a break 'Lette. It's not like I planned this."

We were currently sitting in an airport in a place called Hallow Bastion. We had another half an hour of our layover left. We all quickly discovered that airports were very boring places. Sora and Riku had both fallen asleep and Leon had gone off to find food (Hallow Bastion was apparently where he grew up). Zack, Vincent, and Cloud were milling around near us, bored and now rather hungry.

I heard Olette sigh, "Just be careful, alright? Where are you anyway?"

"Currently stuck in Hallow Bastion waiting for our flight out of here," I replied, closing my eyes. I was so tired still.

"You're still a ways off then," Olette deduced.

"Mm hm," I agreed, then opened my eyes when I smelled food.

Leon was passing out sandwiches while Cloud woke Sora and Riku up. I shifted my phone as I took mine with a 'thanks'.

"What?" Olette asked.

"Talking to Leon, he came baring food."

Olette laughed on the other line, "What time is it there anyway?"

I leaned back in my chair to look at the clock on the wall, "Uh, one-ish."

"Wow," Olette said, "I do hope you mean in the afternoon."

"Well, I can't see outside from where I am but I assume as much," I replied, taking a bite of my sandwich.

"Who you talking to?" Sora asked.

"Olette," I replied, "I donno how you slept through her yelling."

"She was pretty loud," Zack agreed.

"What was that?" Olette asked sharply.

"Nothing," I said innocently which caused Sora to laugh.

"Anyway, I- Hey!" there was the sound of a slight struggle before a rather perky female voice came over the phone.

"Hi Roxas!"

I flinched away from the loud, slightly high-pitched noise and had to catch my phone before it hit the ground, "Hello Selphie."

Both Sora and Riku laughed at that and I threw a pickle slice at them.

"Riku and Sora are with you, right?"

"Yes Selphie," I said and took another bite of my sandwich-

"Has Riku confessed his undying love yet?"

-and nearly choked to death on it. I set the sandwich on its wrapper and put it in the empty seat next to mine as I tried to clear out my airways. Dammit Selphie, warn a guy when you're going to pull shit like that.

"I'll take that as a 'no'," the brunette said in response to my coughing fit from hell.

The others were watching me worried and Sora passed me a water, which I gladly took. After a moment I remembered how to breathe.

"Dammit Selphie! Are you _trying _to kill me?"

"Maybe," she replied in an innocent voice and I scowled.

"Give Olette her phone back."

"Olette's busy."

I paused at that, "What did you do to her?"

It was Sora and Riku's turn to choke, although theirs was with laughter, not shock.

"Nothing much," Selphie replied.

I raised an eyebrow at that. 'Nothing much' in the world of Selphie rarely meant good things.

"Nothing much as in…?"

"She's a little… tied up at the moment."

"…. You tied her up?" I repeated in disbelief.

"Just you wait Ro-," she hesitated for a moment, clearly having been about to say 'Roxy', "Roxas, next time you see her she'll have under gone a Selphie makeover special."

I paled and I could hear Olette loudly protesting in the background, "I think that's considered torture Selphie."

"Is not!" Selphie said and I could picture her hands on her hips, "Keep it up and I'll give you one once you get back."

"You wouldn't dare."

I heard her giggle and couldn't help the feeling of dread that settled in my stomach, "Maybe when I'm done with you, you'll be able to catch Axel's attention."

"Dammit, why does everyone keep saying that?" I growled in annoyance.

"Because whether you know it or not, you can be just as dense as Sora."

"I'm hanging up on you."

"Have fun! Olette says 'bye'!"

I could hear Olette in the background scream, "I did not say 'bye'. I said 'save me'!"

I snorted and closed my phone, putting it back in my pocket and turning back to my sandwich.

"What did Selphie do to her?" Sora asked as he finished off his sandwich.

"She tied her up and is going to give her a makeover," I replied.

Riku froze with his sandwich half way to his mouth, a horrified look on his face.

"Poor, poor Olette," Sora said, shaking his head, "It was nice knowing her."

The others looked at us oddly (minus Cloud who also had a look akin to horror written on his face), but we ignored them as we finished off our lunches and got ready to board the plane.

* * *

"This… is Midgar?" Sora asked as he looked around the less than appealing landscape.

"Lovely, isn't it?" I said sarcastically.

Riku made a face, "It smells here."

"Welcome to the city boys," Zack said in a slightly joking tone.

"It's not as bad as I remember," Vincent observed.

I gave a slight shake of my head, "This side is better because they don't want to scare away the tourists. Just wait until we get away from the airport and the surrounding hotels."

"I think I know why you had issues adjusting," Sora observed as we made our way toward the parking lot, "It's so different."

"Cab?" I asked, ignoring Sora for the moment.

Vincent nodded and tried to hail one, only to be ignored.

"Nah, you're doing it all wrong," I said and dropped my bag.

I walked forward and tapped on the hood of one of the stopped taxis and leaned in the open window, "We need to get to a hotel."

"You got money kid?" the cabbie asked.

"Obviously since we just got off a plane," I replied.

He frowned at me before nodding, "Hurry up then."

I motioned the others over and we got in. Sora gave me a confused look and I shook my head. There was no asking in the city, only demanding.

* * *

"I don't like it here," Sora announced bluntly as we dropped our stuff in a hotel room.

I rolled my eyes at him, "Why do you think I rarely talk about this place?"

"I guess you weren't kidding," Riku muttered, mostly to himself.

Sora, Riku and I were sharing a room while Zack and Vincent were sharing the room next to ours. Cloud and Leon had the room on our other side that connected to ours.

"We're still on the nicer side of town," I said, forgoing putting anything I owned in the dressers provided.

After pulling out the first drawer Sora seemed to agree with my idea, "You have got to be joking me."

Riku pulled open his drawer and jerked back as something crawled out of it. He threw up his hands and spun around.

"That's it, I'm done. This place is gross!"

"Don't be such a girl," I snapped at him, "We're not here to enjoy ourselves, we're here to find your brother."

He scowled at me, but kept his mouth shut. He closed the drawer with his foot and glanced at the bed, "It doesn't have things in it too, does it?"

I glanced at the beds, then gave a small shrug, "Who knows?"

Sora looked thoroughly grossed out, "Could you guys stop asking questions like that? I'd prefer not to know!"

I gave him an apologetic smile, "You get used to it."

"Luckily we're only here for the night," Riku muttered, "Where are we going tomorrow again?"

"Other side of town," I replied, examining the bed before sitting on it, "There's lots of rundown shops and houses we could stay in. We leave a paper trail by staying in hotels."

"But if they're rundown then won't they be lacking in supplies?" Sora asked, confused.

"Yeah," I agreed without hesitation.

"And that's alright?" Riku asked, incredulously.

I shrugged, "I survived on my own like that for years. You guys can survive a few days or so."

"You were used to it," Riku countered.

I scoffed, "Not at first I wasn't. My parents were rich, remember?"

Riku snapped his mouth shut and sighed, "This sucks."

* * *

"My god, look at all the kids," Sora whispered as we wound our way through the back streets of Midgar.

"Most of them are orphans," I supplied as I looked around.

"Yeah, this is how I remember it," Vincent said, not sounding too happy about it.

"They're so small…" Riku said in the same quiet tone that Sora used.

"Hey Roxas!" a few kids shouted and I gave a small smile and waved at them. No one dared to comment.

We came to a stop in front of a house that was very familiar to me. It was the very house that Hayner, Pence, Olette, Naminé, and myself claimed as our own. I turned and walked up the steps, the others right behind me.

I opened the door and gave a quick look around. Everything was how we had left it, just dustier. A quick glance around assured me that no one had been here recently and I pushed the door all the way open.

"What is this place?" Riku asked as they all stepped in.

"This is where I used to live," I offered heading for the staircase.

There was a pause followed by, "You have got to be joking."

I looked at Riku and snorted, "Hardly."

"It's in pretty good condition," Leon observed, "I'm surprised no one else has moved in."

I walked up the stairs carefully, testing to make sure they hadn't gotten any worse in my time away, "Not surprising. The cops were waiting for us here the day we got caught. Everyone has probably been too afraid that the cops would do random raids."

"Random raids?" Sora repeated.

I was at the top of the stairs now, peering into the rooms to make sure no one had used methods other than the front door to get in, "Yeah, once the cops find a place that someone was using, they tend to come back from time to time to make sure no one else has moved in."

"Why would you not want to be caught?" Riku asked in confusion, "I mean, all of you guys got to leave this place and found good homes."

I leaned against the railing at the tops of the stairs carefully, "Because you have to see it from our point of view. You're taught stealing is wrong and that if you get caught you'll get in trouble. Every person who has been caught disappears never to return. Add a healthy dose of little kid imagination and think about it."

"The terrible unknown," Leon said.

I nodded, "We spend our whole lives avoiding getting caught stealing simply because every time someone gets caught, they disappear. How were we supposed to know that they sent you to homes?"

"I guess that makes sense," Sora said quietly.

"Anyone up there?" Vincent asked.

I shook my head and Sora looked confused again, "You guys were just saying how no one was here, why would you ask if someone was?"

"There are ways other than the front door to get into a house. The front door would leave footprints in the dust," I nodded toward our own footprints, "which means it would be easy for the cops to tell if there had been someone here. By using an upstairs window you lessen the chances of being caught."

"I never would have thought of that," Sora said, looking perplexed by this train of thought.

"I should hope not," Cloud said and Sora laughed nervously.

"What do you have here?" Zack asked.

"We used to have blankets and the mattresses from the old beds. I donno if we still do," I said, moving toward the upstairs bedrooms to check.

"Others might have taken them?" Cloud asked as the others started exploring.

"Possibly. Watch the bedroom down there, it's-"

"AH!" Sora and Riku both yelled and I heard them tumble to the ground.

"-infested with rats," I finished with a sigh.

There was the sound of them shutting the bedroom door again and I shook my head, moving toward the other bedrooms. It looked like everything was still here even after two years. I frowned a little, wondering why some of the kids didn't come and take the blankets. It was odd.

I was about to walk out of the room when I noticed a jacket lying on the floor in the corner. I walked over to it and frowned. So someone else had been there. Where were they now?

My question was answered when a voice that didn't belong to any of the people who had come with me echoed up from downstairs, "This is our place, y'know?"

I closed my eyes and counted to ten. There was only one person that I knew who ended every sentence with 'y'know'. It was almost as annoying as 'ya'.

I walked out of the room and leaned on the railing. I couldn't actually see them so I assumed that they came through the backdoor.

"Seifer!" I yelled down and there was a pause before the entire group moved into the living room where I could see them.

There were three newcomers in the group, three people who I (unfortunately) was rather familiar with.

The tall blonde of the group sneered at me, "Well look who it is, chicken wuss."

I rolled my eyes at him, "I'm not in the mood. What the hell are you guys doing here? I thought you had that place down by the sculpture?"

"Cops busted it, y'know?" the dark haired guy replied.

"Jammed," the only girl in the group said.

I had almost forgotten how annoying it was to talk to them.

"What are _you _doing here?" Seifer countered, "Word had it you split."

"Gone," the girl echoed.

"Totally caught, y'know?"

Judging by the look on Riku's face I wasn't the only one who wanted to shut the other two up.

It was actually Sora who spoke next, "Don't you two ever say anything other than what he says?"

God I loved my cousin.

"Who asked you?" Seifer snapped, glancing at him before doing a double take, "What the hell?"

He looked at Sora then turned to look at me, "Well, well, two for the price of one."

"Double."

"Totally the same, y'know?"

Seifer turned back to Sora and I growled, "Leave him alone Seifer."

"Or else what?" he sneered at me.

"Or else Riku will bash your face in," I offered, nodding toward Riku.

Riku had shifted so that Sora was just behind him and crossed his arms, glaring at the group in front of him.

"Ch, like he can take us," Seifer scoffed.

"Actually Riku's the least of your worries," I said rather cheerfully, "It's Cloud you really got to watch out for."

Cloud, who had been calmly leaning against his buster blade the whole time, gave Seifer a look that promised him a painful death should he look at Sora wrong. Seifer gulped before regaining his composure.

"This is still our place. You left it," he said, turning back to me.

"I did," I agreed, "but I'm back for the moment. It's a big house, surely we can all share and play nice."

"I don't want to play nice. The only person to ever beat me in a fight is long gone, so come and take me on if you want," Seifer said.

"Left years ago, y'know."

"Split."

I frowned a little, "Who?"

"Some punk named Axel-"

I burst out laughing. I couldn't help myself. Axel had kicked Seifer's ass, oh, I so had to call him.

"Wait," Sora said, confused, "Our Axel?"

"You know him?" Seifer asked, spinning around.

"How many people named Axel do you know?" Riku asked dryly, "Red hair, really thin, obsession with fire?"

Seifer nodded, "Yeah, that's him."

"But," Sora said, still looking confused, "Roxas and Axel are almost equal in strength."

"What?" Seifer exclaimed, "No way!"

"Not possible, y'know?"

"Foul."

I wiped tears of laughter from my eyes, "We're not staying long. Just be nice and share."

Seifer scowled at me, "This doesn't mean I like you."

"Feeling's mutual, I assure you," I replied.

"Stay out of our way, y'know?"

"Middle bedroom's ours," Seifer snapped as the group walked up the staircase with less care than I had used.

"By all means," I said, moving away from them.

Seifer sneered at me before they went inside and shut the door.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four. Check chapter one for need to knows.

* * *

"So, wait, I'm confused," Sora said

"So, wait, I'm confused," Sora said.

"So am I," Riku said, looking at me like I was mental.

I rolled my eyes and muttered about island people, which caused them both to yell 'hey!'

"I told you, the fastest way to find out if Kadaj is in the city is to ask the kids," I said again.

"Wouldn't it make more sense to go to the police?" Riku asked.

"They won't know a damn thing. If you need to know something ask the kids," Seifer said as he walked over to our group that was sitting in a circle on the floor or the living room.

"What'cha looking for anyway, y'know?" Rai asked from beside Seifer.

"This man," Leon said, pulling out a picture of Kadaj.

"Busted," Fuu said and Seifer nodded.

"Fuu's right," he said, causing everyone else to look at him confused, "that is the guy who busted us."

"He's not a cop," I said, conversationally.

"He had a badge, y'know?"

"He's an escaped murderer," Vincent said, "The only badge he would have is a stolen one."

"Is he still there?" Cloud asked.

Sefier shrugged, "Ask the kids."

* * *

"Roxas, where are we going?" Zack asked as we wound our way through the streets of Midgar.

"To find Alice," I replied.

"Alice?" Sora echoed.

I nodded.

"Why?" Riku asked.

"Because she will know where to find Lock, Shock, and Barrel."

"And we need to find them because…?" Cloud asked.

"They know all."

They looked at me skeptically but I paid them no mind since I had just seen the blonde haired girl I was looking for dart across the street.

"Alice!"

The girl came to a stop and turned to look at us, "Oh, Roxas! It's been so long since I've seen you. Word had it that you were caught."

I placed a hand on the back of my head (a terrible habit I picked up from Sora) and cringed a little, "Yeah, I was."

"Of course you were," she responded, matter-of-factly, "Lock, Shock, and Barrel said so."

"Speaking of, do you know where we could find them?"

"Well," Alice said, resting her finger against her lips thoughtfully, "They should be at home this time of day unless they're checking out the goings on over in the square."

"Alice, hurry up!" an older black haired girl called from a little ways down the street.

"I'm coming Jasmine!" the girl yelled over her shoulder before turning back to us and curtseying, "Good day to you."

With that she turned and ran off to Jasmine who waved at me and I waved back. I turned to look at the rest of my group with a small smile.

"This should be interesting…"

* * *

We walked into an old bar that greatly resembled the one that Tifa owned back on Destiny. It even had the bedrooms above the bar. I walked over to the bar and knocked on the dusty top.

The others stared like I was nuts, but I was rewarded a moment later with a boy wearing a devil costume hopping out of one of the cabinets behind the bar. Everyone else started in surprise and stared at the child.

"Hey Lock," I said calmly.

Lock snapped his fingers, "I never startle you. At least I got your friends."

I rolled my eyes at him and he spun himself on one of the bar stools, "Business or pleasure Roxas?"

"Business as always!" an accusing voice came from under one of the tables.

I didn't even bother to glance back, "Hello Shock."

A girl dressed as a witch walked over to join Lock, "What do you need to know?"

"We're looking for someone," I said, leaning against the bar.

"Oh?" a third voice asked from the stairs.

A boy dressed as a skeleton walked into the room and joined Lock and Shock.

"Yeah," Leon said, moving forward with the picture.

"Oh, oh, oh…" Shock said sounding amused.

"No games," I cut in, "he's an escaped murderer."

"That's no fun," Lock said, crossing his arms.

"What do you know?" I asked.

"He took Seifer's place," Barrel said, "But you already knew that."

I could feel the other exchanging creeped out looks behind me. I nodded for them to continue.

"Came into town about a day ago," Shock continued, "waved around a badge and scared everyone away."

"He still there?" I asked.

"Of course he is," Lock replied, "He's looking for someone."

"His mom," I agreed and they all nodded.

"You know Roxas, it's no fun if you already know things," Shock said with her hands on her hips.

I gave her a look that said I wasn't amused so Barrel continued, "Aladdin has been watching him. If you want details you'll have to take it up with him."

"Will do then, he in the square?" I asked, standing upright.

Three nods were all I got in reply so I turned to head for the door.

"Roxas."

I turned to look back at Lock confused; they rarely said anything more once you were dismissed.

"Watch yourself, he's not right," the devil dressed boy said.

I gave a slight nod and we walked out of the bar. As we closed the door I could feel them still watching us.

* * *

"What… the hell?" Riku asked.

I looked at him curiously, "What?"

"What on earth was with those outfits?"

"It's all they have."

"So, we find this… Aladdin?" Vincent asked.

I nodded, "He's probably with Jasmine and Alice."

"I'm so confused," Sora said, covering his face with his hand.

I smiled at him, "You're in my world now, you'll just have to smile, nod, and pretend you know what's going on."

"Out of curiosity, do you know every one in this city?" Zack asked, looking at me.

I gave a small shrug, "Met some through Hayner, others through Pence, a lot of them are younger kids who move from one group of older kids to another hoping that someone will take care of them."

"This place is really depressing," Sora said quietly.

"Hey! What the-!" Cloud said suddenly, spinning around.

We all turned to see that a monkey was sitting on the ground behind him, holding one of Cloud's gloves that had previously been in his pocket in his hand.

I sighed, "Abu…"

The monkey looked up before throwing the glove at Cloud and hopping onto my head. He stood up and took off his hat and gave a slight bow.

Everyone just stared at him in shock and confusion.

"There you are!" an older boy with black hair said as he rounded the corner, "You thief you, I told you to check out Seifer's place, not bother people."

The monkey actually shrugged a little before leaping off my head and onto the boy's shoulder. I smiled and shook my head.

"Hey Aladdin."

"Roxas my man!" He said, putting a sideways fist in the air.

I matched him and we tapped our fists before I crossed my arms, "Lock, Shock, and Barrel said you might know something about the guy who kicked Seifer and his gang out."

"Yeah, Abu was supposed to be watching him," he paused and looked at the monkey pointedly, "What do you need to know?"

"Anything you got."

He scratched his head, "He's been asking around about you actually."

That caused me to blink a few times and mentally curse those three brats, "Anyone been talking?"

Aladdin gave a slight shake of his head, "Not anyone who knows you and the others don't have any good information anyway."

I felt some tension that I didn't even know was there leave my shoulders, "What has he been asking?"

He gave a small shrug and Leon seemed to be tired of being dragged around since he stepped forward, "How could you know he's been asking questions and not know what he was asking?"

Aladdin's eyes narrowed and he crossed his own arms, silently staring up at Leon. Leon scowled, but Aladdin didn't even flinch. I sighed and covered my face with my hand.

"Please answer him Aladdin, he needs to know."

The boy glanced at me before uncrossing his arms, "Just the word on the street. None of us have seen Roxas in years so it didn't seem too important."

I waved a hand to stop whatever question Leon was going to ask next, "Who did he ask?"

Aladdin paused for a moment, "Peter and his group… Chip… and Mulan I think."

"They at the spot?"

Aladdin nodded, "Yeah… Watch it though Roxas, he's carrying."

"Probably the gun of the cop who's badge he stole," Zack said to the others who nodded a little.

"Know anything else about him?" I asked.

Aladdin hesitated and it put me on guard immediately, "He's planning something big. From what we've been able to see he's trying to bust someone out of jail."


	5. Chapter 5

Check chapter one for any of the important stuff.

* * *

"Where the hell are we

"Where the hell are we?" Riku asked as he shoved a branch out of his way.

"Depends on who you ask. Well all call it 'the spot', but it's actually known as the Forgotten City," I replied.

"Forgotten City?" Sora echoed.

I nodded, "Hold up."

We all came to a stop and I looked around before letting out a sigh, "Olly olly oxen free!"

Everyone turned to stare at me as though I was completely insane, only to jump back in shock as a bunch of boys came jumping out of trees.

A boy in a fox outfit walked over with his hands on his hips, "You never play with us Roxas."

"You'll get over it Slightly. Where's Peter?"

"If you win our game then we'll tell you," a boy in a rabbit suit said, crossing his arms.

"I don't have time for games today boys," I said tiredly. I had forgotten what it was like to deal with everyone here.

"Then we're not telling!" the twins in the raccoon costumes exclaimed as one.

I crossed my arms, "Then I'll find them on my own and tell Wendy not to tell you any stories."

The boy in a bear costume pointed a finger at me, "You wouldn't dare…"

"Try me," I replied.

The group went into a huddle a few feet away having a furious discussion. Cloud put a hand on top of his head and sighed.

"It's a good thing you came with us, Roxas. We'd be doomed without you."

"Yeah, you would," I agreed, turning to look at them, "They don't talk to adults."

Surprise crossed the others faces and I turned back to the group who seemed to have come to a conclusion.

"Alright, fine," Slightly says, "We'll take you to Peter."

The others started forward but I held out my hand to stop them, "You will take us to Peter without any games, no attempts to attack us, and you will not ask to receive a payment of any sort."

"I told you he wouldn't fall for that," the boy in the skunk costume said.

"No one asked you Tootles," the bear boy said.

"Understood?" I said, ignoring the argument.

"Fine," the boy dressed as a rabbit said.

"I want agreement out of all of you," I said and they all sighed.

"You're no fun Roxas!" the twins chorused.

I once again ignored them and waited for them all to agree. They all muttered reluctant agreements and we headed deeper into the woods.

"So… who are they?" Zack asked.

"The Lost Boys," I replied, "Peter and Wendy take care of them with John's help. None of them know who they are so they kind of made up their own names or were assigned names by Peter."

"And the games?" Riku asked.

"They like games," I replied with a shrug, "Everything's a game to them. _Everything_."

A rooster call echoed around us and the others (minus the Lost Boys) paused and looked around in confusion. I smiled a little and shook my head.

"Don't worry, it's just Peter."

They looked at me confused again as we followed the Lost Boys into a clearing that surrounded a pond. Behind the pond was a giant white colored… something. It was either the biggest shell ever or a rock that was shaped like a shell. Sitting in one of the grooves of the shell was a boy who was dressed in all green and crowing. I glanced back to see how the other reacted to this sight and laughed at the looks on their faces.

Kneeling by the edge of the pond were two girls. One was obviously of Asian decent whereas the other girl had dirty blonde (or was it light brown?) hair. A little ways off were three boys, two who looked close to the same age and were fair-haired and another who was an older boy with dark hair and glasses.

The Lost Boys ran over to the group making a racket as they did so. Everyone looked over at the boys as they ran over to the group and the boy sitting on the shell… rock… thing… jumped to his feet.

"Attention!"

The boys screeched to a halt, lined up, and saluted him.

"I think I like him," Zack said with a slight grin.

"At ease men," the boy said as he jumped down from his resting place, "What are you all so excited about?"

We stepped out of the forest and into the clearing and the dark haired boy adjusted his glasses.

"I say," he said in an English accent that was the only clue as to where he had come from, "Is that? It is…"

"Hi Roxas!" one of the younger boys (the one wearing a white shirt and blue pants) said with a slight lisp.

The boy in green spun around quickly and threw his arms into the air, "Roxas! Long time no see!"

"Hey Peter," I said, waving toward the boy in green before glancing over at the group of boys again, "Hello Chip."

The boy in white smiled widely and the other fair-haired boy (dressed in pink footie pajamas) picked up a teddy bear and looked at all of us in something akin to wonder an awe.

The two girls next to the pond stood and the Asian girl gave a bow, "Welcome back."

"Thanks Mulan," I said with a small smile before it disappeared, "Almost wish I was staying."

"You're leaving again?" the boy with the teddy bear asked, his voice betraying that he had recently learned how to speak.

"What ever is the matter?" the other girl asked, an English accent coating her words.

We made our way around the pond so that we didn't have to yell in order to hear one another.

"Aladdin says someone's been asking about me," I said as a reply.

They all exchanged looks then looked at Leon, Vincent, Zack, and Cloud. I sighed.

"They can be trusted," I said and they all exchanged looks again.

"There was someone asking about you," Mulan said walking forward, "He said such horrible things Roxas."

I frowned at that, "Huh?"

"He kept trying to get anything and everything we knew about you from us," Peter continued.

"And when we refused, oh, the things he said were just awful!" Wendy said, placing a hand over her heart.

"He didn't threaten you, did he?" Sora asked, looking concerned.

They all quickly shook their heads, but it was Slightly who spoke up, "He kept talking about all the things he was going to do once he got a hold of you."

I felt myself pale a little and I could feel Sora and Cloud both stiffen.

"He also went on about someone named… " Peter trailed off then looked to Wendy for help.

"It started with a 'S'," Wendy said, looking thoughtful.

"It was Sora," Mulan supplied, "It means 'sky'."

I could nearly feel Sora pale and Riku shifted a little closer to him.

"There was another name too!" Chip said as he walked over.

"There was indeed," John agreed, fixing the top hat on his head and leaning against his umbrella.

"Started with a 'R'!" the twins exclaimed.

"It was 'Riku'," the boy in pink said.

"I believe Michael's right," Mulan said and Wendy nodded in agreement.

Sora, Riku, and I looked at one another before looking at the other four. They all had grim expressions on their faces.

"This doesn't bode well," Leon said quietly.

* * *

"So, from what everyone around here says, Kadaj showed up about a day ago, he's looking for his mother still, he's hiding out at some apparently well known place, he's planning to break someone else out of jail and he's after you three," Vincent summed up.

"Told you the kids would know," I said, falling onto what was left of the couch tiredly.

Sora fell onto the couch next to me, "Yeah, but did we really have to walk like twenty miles?"

"I second that sentiment," Riku said, falling to the ground next to the couch.

My phone ringing cut off anything I was about to say. I leaned back and pulled it out of my pocket, smiling at the number on the screen.

I flipped the phone open and asked with a grin, "Escaped from Selphie?"

"Ha, ha," Olette replied and I couldn't help but smile a little, "You make it to Midgar alright?"

"Yup, and I am sad to report that it is the exact same."

"Depressing," Olette replied, "Oh, hang on a sec."

There was a pause before she came back, her voice sounding further away, "There we go."

"Did you just put it on speaker phone?" I asked.

"Yup," Demyx said cheerfully.

I smiled a little, "Damn you, I hate it when you do that."

"So Rox, how's Midgar?" Axel asked.

I leaned back against the armrest of the couch, "Shitty as always. Oh, Seifer says hi."

There was a stunned silence before Zexion spoke up, "You know Seifer?"

Olette spoke before I could, "You guys know Seifer?"

"Yeah we do, Axel used to get in fights with him all the time," Demyx replied.

"Why are you talking with him?" Axel asked.

"Because he's at our house," I replied.

"What?" Olette asked, "Why would he be there? He has his place over by the sculpture."

"Kadaj kicked him out," I replied.

"So Kadaj really is there?" Zexion asked.

"It would appear so," I agreed.

"Man, you guys need-"

What we needed I wasn't going to find out as something came tumbling through our window. We all jumped to our feet, my phone lying forgotten on the couch. It took me a moment, but I recognized the ball of fur that was sitting in a pile of broken glass.

"Abu?" I asked, kneeling down, "What the hell was that about?"

Abu uncurled himself from his protective ball to reveal some papers in his hands. He looked around quickly, then, seeming to deem it safe, jumped up excitedly and held the papers out to me.

I blinked and took the papers from him, flipping through them idly while I tried to figure out what on earth they could be. A few words caught my eye and I actually stopped to read one of the pages.

"Nice job Abu," I said quietly, standing again.

Abu bowed before hopping back out the now broken window.

"What is it?" Cloud asked, moving forward.

"Kadaj's plans that Aladdin was talking about," I replied.

Vincent held out his hand and I handed them to him. The four adults leaned in to look at the papers for a moment before Zack spoke up.

"He's going to break all of them out?"

"Try to anyway," Leon agreed.

"We have to warn the guards, we can't afford to have them all on the street again. One of them we can handle, but the four of them together? Unlikely," Cloud said tiredly.

"I'll call the precinct," Vincent said, turning and walking into the kitchen, his phone in his hand.


	6. Chapter 6

Check chapter one for important stuff.

* * *

"But I said I was sorry," I said for possibly the hundredth time

"But I said I was sorry," I said for possibly the hundredth time.

"But you scared the hell out of us Roxas!" Olette yelled into the phone. It was no longer on speaker since she wanted to scream at me without interruption.

"Well it scared the hell out of me to!" I replied, "You have a monkey fly through your window and see how well you react."

Olette sighed, "Alright… you got me there…"

I sighed quietly and leaned back against the stairs on the back porch. It had always been my favorite spot to sit and think.

"What did Abu want anyway?" Olette asked after a few moments of silence.

"He stole the plans that Kadaj was making. He's planning a massive break out."

"How massive?"

"Yazoo, Loz, Sephiroth, and he mentioned possibly their dad."

Olette inhaled sharply, "We can't let all of them break out. It would be a repeat of two years ago!"

"Yeah, I know. Vincent called the precinct and gave them a heads up so hopefully they'll put them under high security."

"They'd better," Olette agreed.

We fell into another silence and I closed my eyes. I was so incredibly tired. A shadow fell over me and I opened my eyes to see Seifer and his gang standing there.

"You gonna move?" Seifer asked, annoyed.

"Totally in the way, y'know?"

"Go."

I sighed again before getting up and hopping off the steps. The three walked into the house and I resumed my spot on the stairs.

"Did I just hear Rai?" Olette asked.

"Yeah, Seifer and his gang came back. They use the back door," I replied.

Olette made a noise of understanding that told me she knew exactly where I was sitting.

"So, find out anything else of interest?" Olette asked.

"Well after finding Alice who sent us to Lock, Shock, and Barrel, who sent us to Aladdin, who sent us to Peter and his gang we found out that he came here about a day ago and that he's after me, Sora, and Riku."

"Riku?" Olette repeated, "Why would he be after his own brother?"

"I honestly have no idea. I'm still not even sure why he ever went after Sora. He's a very confusing person…"

Olette giggled a little and I smiled. It all felt so familiar even if things were different. We were different. Yet it still felt right to be sitting on my stairs talking to Olette. Maybe I had missed this place and I hadn't even known it. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't leave Destiny for it, but I felt normal here. Everyone else here was just like me; I wasn't an oddity. It was nice to just fit in and know everyone again.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Olette said, pulling me from my thoughts, "Hayner says he's going to kick your ass when you get back."

An honest to god smile crossed my lips at those words, "Tell him he can try."

Olette sighed, "Boys."

It was an old conversation. We'd been having it since the first time we met one another. We all knew our parts by heart, but it was still fun. It was like it had become a game of some sort.

"Well here's a new one for you," Olette said, "Naminé says she wants a piece of you when he's done."

I blinked a few times, "Nam? What's she so mad about?"

"About putting yourself in danger again of course. You're not the only one in trouble though. Yuffie's going to kill Vincent, Leon, and Cloud and Kairi's been threatening Sora and Riku's lives."

I snorted at that and tilted my head up to see Sora standing behind me. I grinned a little.

"Did you hear that Sora?"

Sora blinked and shook his head. My grin widened.

"Kairi's threatening to kill you and Riku for putting yourselves in danger."

Sora paled and I laughed. It was just like it used to be, only much better.

* * *

"…. There's only one bed."

I blinked and looked at Riku, "Yeah…."

"…. There are three of us."

"Very good Riku, you can count," I said sarcastically.

He shot me an annoyed look, "Apparently you can't since you don't seem to realize there are more of us than beds."

"Oh no, I'm highly aware," I corrected, "I lived here before, remember?"

"So then what do you suggest?" Riku asked, annoyance in his tone.

"Well," I said in a slightly condescending tone, "You can sleep on the floor or you can share the bed."

Sora blushed heavily behind Riku and I couldn't help but wonder what got him so flustered. Maybe he liked Riku after all.

Riku looked angry, which I had come to learn over time was what happened when he was embarrassed, "It's small…"

"Yeah, I suppose it is," I said calmly, greatly enjoying being the only one not bothered by this. Sure I didn't really like the thought of sharing a bed with Riku of all people but I doubted it would be too big a deal.

They both looked at me, neither of them looking happy so I smirked a little, "Just be glad we're all relatively small and that there's only three of us."

Riku crossed his arms annoyed and Sora bit his lip. I rolled my eyes at both of them.

"When you're done being princesses feel free to sleep. I, however, am extremely tired and going to bed."

I fell backwards onto the bed, moved to one side, and made a pillow out of my arms. I could feel them looking at me and after a few minutes I felt movement and body heat. I was grateful for the body heat; even with the blankets around here we wouldn't have been warm at all. I shifted a little and relaxed before drifting off to sleep.

* * *

I was the first one up the next morning. This wasn't much of a surprise since both Sora and Riku could sleep until noon without an alarm clock to wake them. What was surprising, however, was how I woke up.

Somehow during the night we had moved. A lot. I was in the middle of the bed, which confused me to no end. Sora was lying across both myself and Riku, who had an arm draped across Sora's chest.

I blinked a few times before struggling to get myself untangled from them. I succeeded (barely) and changed clothes before making my way down the staircase. I could tell by the open door of the middle room that Seifer and his gang had already started their day, which meant I currently had the place to myself.

I padded into the kitchen, running my fingers through my hair. I looked up and blinked a few times upon seeing someone already sitting there.

No, three some ones.

I blinked at them before sighing and sitting on the counter, "You three don't normally make house calls."

The pointedly ignored my joke, which caused me to frown, "What's wrong?"

"That guy you were asking about," Shock started.

"He got really mad because Abu stole those papers," Barrel continued.

"He's looking for everyone as we speak. We sent everyone into the underground for now, but he might catch on," Lock finished.

I jumped off the counter and nearly sprinted up the stairs. I didn't dare yell up to them out of fear of drawing attention to our whereabouts.

I headed into Cloud and the others' room first. I didn't even bother to knock, just flung the door open. The four were in various states of dress and were more than a little startled to see me.

"What's wrong?" Cloud asked.

I waved him off and went to wake Sora and Riku. I could hear the others following me as I walked back into the room and pulled Sora upright. He snapped awake immediately and blinked groggily at me.

"What the hell Roxas?" he asked in a half-awake manner.

I ignored him and moved to Riku, pulling him into a standing position as well.

"Roxas," Cloud said, clearly annoyed, "What's going on?"

"Kadaj is pissed about his missing papers. He's raiding the whole city, attacking anyone he comes across. Everyone was moved to the underground and that's where we should go too," I said, grabbing my bag from the floor.

That woke everyone up. There was a sudden, but silent, frenzy of movement as everyone grabbed their bags and put on shoes. We quickly headed back down the stairs where Lock was still waiting for us.

"Back way," he said, heading that way himself, "He's down the street."

I nodded to show I understood as I made my way to the downstairs bathroom with Lock just in front of me. Everyone else silently followed. We quickly and silently jumped out the long since broken bathroom window and headed toward a back alleyway not too far off.

No one dared say a word as we moved, nor did they question when I pulled up a manhole that was located at the back of the alleyway. They all just followed Lock down the ladder and I soon followed, covering the hole again.

I jumped down the second half of the ladder and reached over, grabbing an old oil lap that we kept hidden there for just such an occasion. It flared to life, surrounding us with a soft orange glow.

"This way," Lock said, walking along the concrete edge.

"We're in a sewer," Riku commented, his voice low.

"Well what did you think I meant when I said 'underground'? A cave?" I replied as I held the lamp close to eye level so we could see everything around us.

"Why do you have an underground?" Zack asked.

"Mostly to hid from cops," I admitted, "partially for emergencies, and partially because we ran out of places to live above ground."

"People _live _down here?" Sora asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, this is where Pain, Panic, and Hercules live," I replied.

"And Meg," Lock piped up, "It used to belong to Hades years ago, but they took it over when he left."

I nodded my agreement as we rounded a corner and came face to face with a large group of kids, many of them holding lamps near identical to my own.

"This way, this way," Lock said, leading the group further into the maze of pipes and concrete.

"Where are we going?" Leon asked, batting a cobweb out of the way.

"To the others," Lock informed.

"This is a meeting place for this part of the city. Each section has one and once everyone is accounted for we all move to the main meeting place," I said by way of explanation.

"What he said," Seifer agreed as he walked near us.

"Safety in numbers, y'know?" Rai agreed.

"Protection," Fuu added.

"You all are amazingly organized," Zack observed.

"I a world where the adults are scum it's the kids who have to pick up the slack. We all look out for each other and protect one another," Seifer said.

"We have unspoken rules and agreements," I said, adding on to what Seifer was saying, "One of which is if Lock, Shock, or Barrel say something, it's absolute truth and you better listen to them."

"Also," Alice said, coming up on our other side, "the older kids must watch out for the younger ones. That's why many of us travel in groups."

"I thought you said this place was dangerous?" Riku asked me.

I nodded, "Oh, it is. Trust me. We've stuck to the nice side of town. There's another part where stepping foot in it means you might not come back out."

"Ch," Seifer said, "It's where all the adults are. You get a lot of gangs over there who don't like that we're on their turf so to speak. Regular people don't matter, but they see street kids as a threat."

"So, wait, we've just stayed over here because you know everyone here and everyone here will help one another?" Cloud clarified.

I nodded, "I donno if you noticed or not, but all that's around here is run down things. Nothing works, nothing is open. So in order to eat we have to go into the gang territory."

"And the cop territory," Seifer said, "but I'll take a run in with the cops over a run in with a gang. At least you can outsmart and outrun the cops."

Nods came from all the kids around us in agreement. I glanced at the cops who were traveling with me, wondering if they found any offense to this.

"Not all cops are stupid," Zack said with a slight pout.

"Maybe not other places," Alice said, "but here they certainly are."

We traveled in silence for a while longer before we came to a stop at the place where we had to cross the water we had been walking beside for a while.

"Oh no," Riku said, shaking his head, "That's sewer water."

"Christ Riku, you're such a girl," I snapped at him. Alice cleared her throat and I smiled, "Sorry, my mistake. You're a prissy girl since all the girls here don't have a problem with it."

He sent me a death glare that I ignored as I slid my bag off my shoulder and held it over my head before jumping in. Sora mimicked me, making a face as he did so. Cloud, Zack, Leon, and Vincent had to remove their weapons and held them above the water before following us. Riku growled before holding his own bag above his head and following us, making a disgusted face the whole time.

"You have a lot of weapons," Alice commented lightly.

"We work for the Destiny Island police. Kadaj is an escaped murderer from our prison there," Vincent said.

Everyone (except Lock) turned to look at them at the word 'police'. Seifer sneered at me.

"Damn Roxas, switching sides?"

I glared at him, "More like they're like us. The cops here give all the rest of them a bad name."

"Tch, yeah right," Seifer said.

"Axel trusts them," Sora said innocently.

A hush spread over the group before whispers broke out all over the place.

"You know Axel?" Alice asked in disbelief.

"Uh, yeah?" Sora offered, "He practically lives with us."

"Do you know Zexion and Demyx too?" a small boy whose name I didn't know offhand asked, his eyes sparkling.

"Yeah, where Axel goes, they go," Cloud muttered in something that could have been fond annoyance.

"That is so cool!" a girl with a stuffed moogle exclaimed.

"I always wanted to meet them!" Another said, turning to one of her friends.

I smiled a little; it looked like Axel had quite the reputation.

"Well," Seifer said, looking thoughtful, "If Axel vouches for them then they must be good."

Nods of agreement went all the way around and Lock spoke up for the first time in a while, "Maybe you've all forgotten who he is since its been a few years, but Roxas doesn't trust anyone so him trusting them says a lot."

I blushed at that, I really did, but if you tell anyone I'll deny it.

Silence for another moment before Alice nodded, "Yes, Lock is right, we should trust Roxas' judgment."

"Whatever," Seifer muttered.

We reached the other side and climbed out of the water. After taking a moment to remove our shoes and dump out the extra water, we continued to follow Lock, this time into a slimy pipe.

"Gross, gross, gross, gross…" Riku whispered trying as best he could to not touch anything.

I rolled my eyes at him and sighed. Luckily we came to the end of the pipe fairly quickly. As we hopped down we found ourselves standing in a giant circular… room for lack of a better word, with five or six more pipes like the one we had just come from leading into it.

Directly across from us Peter and the Lost Boys were helping Michael and Chip get down from the pipe. To our left Aladdin was helping Jasmine down. Shock and Barrel were already in the middle of the room with a bunch more kids.

"That everyone?" An older boy with curly reddish hair asked from the middle of the room.

"Think so," said the girl next to him who had long dark hair, pulled back with a purple hair tie, "Forgotten City?"

"Accounted for!" Peter called as he set Chip on the ground.

"Square?" The same girl asked.

"Here!" Aladdin called as he helped some of the smaller kids down.

"Sculpture?"

"Right here!"

"Hightonview?"

"Present!" Alice called.

"Riverside?"

Silence met this and the girl looked around quickly, "We're missing Riverside?"

"Right here!" a voice echoed from one of the pipes before an older boy with black hair jumped down, "Sorry, got a little lost."

The girl waved her hand so show it didn't matter, "That's everyone."

"So, who are our extras?" the reddish haired boy asked.

Shock waved her hand, "They came with Roxas. They're here for that guy."

"You'll take him away?" Mulan asked hopefully.

"We're working on it," Leon answered.

"Oh that would be lovely!" Wendy said happily.

"Yeah, whoo hoo, three cheers and all that," the girl who had been doing roll call said sarcastically, "We need to assign duties."

"Meg," the reddish haired boy said in slight disapproval of her tone.

Meg looked at the older boy who was with her, "Well Wonder Boy, by all means, do it your way."

"I've told you not to call me that," Hercules muttered.

"Oh man! We're trapped down here! Trapped like rats! He'll find us sooner or later he'll have to! The city is deserted; surely he'll find something odd with that! Then he'll find us and he'll kill us and, and, and…" a small blonde hair kid exclaimed as he ran around in circles until he started hyperventilating.

A black haired boy reached over and bopped him on the head with a fist, "Stop panicking Panic."

Sora leaned over to me and muttered, "I think I know where he got his name."

"He didn't mean that, right Wendy?" Michael asked, finally looking away from Panic.

Many of the other younger kids turned to the older kids in the group and started panicking themselves.

"Uh oh…" Seifer muttered, uncrossing his arms.

Instantly about half the room burst into tears and the older kids tried to make the younger ones stop crying. I was suddenly glad our group was made up of mostly older kids. Screaming, crying, and general panic swept the room until a sharp whistle cut through the chaos.

Everyone turned to look at Peter who had been the one to whistle, "Listen up everyone, why don't you come over here and Wendy will tell you a story."

Tears and fears were suddenly forgotten as all the younger kids ran over to gather around Wendy who started in on an epic story about some place she called Neverland where lost children went and you never grew up.

All the older kids sighed in relief and Aladdin grinned, "Saved by Wendy's stories again."

"No joke," Mulan agreed with a smile.

"Heart warming," Meg said, "but we still need to split up duties. We'll need a lookout."

"Leave that to us," Barrel said, indicating toward himself, Lock, and Shock.

"We have enough food to last at least the rest of today," Hercules said quietly.

I dropped my bag to the ground, "We have some energy bars and things of the like."

"That's good," Meg said nodding a little.

"We'll need guards when we sleep," Aladdin said.

"We can do that," Leon said, indicating to himself, Cloud, Zack, and Vincent who all nodded their agreement.

"And a place to sleep," a red headed girl who had come with the black haired boy from Riverside said.

"Ariel's right," Peter said, "We're going to need things to sleep on."

"I'll see what we have," Hercules said, turning to go back through one of the pipes.

"What about water?" Jasmine asked.

"We have plenty of that," Meg assured her.

"So now we wait?" Seifer asked.

"So now we wait," Meg agreed.


	7. Chapter 7

About halfway done. Check chapter one for stuff you need to know.

* * *

Wendy, for the first time in her life, had run out of stories to tell

Wendy, for the first time in her life, had run out of stories to tell. It wasn't surprising since she had more or less told them the whole day. As such the rest of us had to start taking turns telling stories.

Even Sora, Riku and I had stopped to listen when Cloud told a story. He launched into a tale that explained all about Shinra and the Turks and AVALANCHE. He explained how a battle broke out because of all that Shinra was doing and how the aftermath was what we saw before us.

Many of the kids were fascinated by the story since they, much like myself, had never known why things were the way they were. Cloud was given instant cool status by the group since he had been one of the people who fought against Shinra and the others soon joined him in the cool status once Cloud explained their roles in the battle.

Sora, Riku, and I got pulled into telling stories about Destiny Islands and what it's like there. We added in a few stories about Axel and his gang, which seemed to please them all to no end.

"It sounds so lovely," Alice said with a smile, "I wish I could see the ocean."

"Did Axel, Demyx, and Zexion really graduate?" A boy with brown hair, holding a stuffed yellow bear with a red shirt on it asked.

"Why do you think they didn't Christopher Robin?" Chip asked, looking up at the boy.

"How could they have caught up with everything they missed all those years? I mean, Zexion is supposed to be a genius so maybe he could get by, but the others?" Christopher explained.

"Well they did and they're all in college with jobs, their own house, and a car," I said, cutting across the argument.

"That has to be a lie," another boy spoke up and others nodded their agreement.

I sighed and reached into my pocket where I kept my wallet. I flipped it open and pulled out a few pictures.

"Look," I said, "this is their car."

I showed them all a picture of Axel's beautiful red car with our entire group sitting on, around, or in it.

"Hey! That's Hayner!" one of the kids yelled.

"And Pence!" another piped in.

"Olette and Naminé too!"

I smiled a little at their excitement and pulled out another picture, "And this was taken at their graduation."

It was once again our entire group, this time we were all sitting on bleachers and Axel, Zexion, Demyx, and Riku were in graduation gowns. In the background was the rest of the graduating class throwing their hats into the air. Riku gave me an odd look.

"You keep those in your wallet?"

I shrugged a little, "It's either that or find a frame that's small enough for them to fit in."

Sora laughed a little at that and I grinned.

"Alright," Slightly said, his hands on his hips, "So maybe they do have a car and they did graduate, but a house?"

I sighed and flipped through the pictures again before pulling out another. This one only had my gang and Axel's gang in it. We were standing in the front of a house that had a 'SOLD' sign on the lawn. Axel was resting an arm on my head, a cigarette in one hand. Zexion had his arms crossed and looked bored. Demyx was making a 'V' for victory sign with his fingers. The rest of us were laughing at him.

"That the day they moved in?" Sora asked over my shoulder.

I nodded, "Same day Riku was moving in."

Riku and Sora both nodded in agreement. The kids frowned a little again.

"I don't get it," Panic said, "How could they have come so far?"

"Hard work and a bit of luck," I said with a small smile.

"What about you Roxas?" Michael asked, looking up at me.

"What about me?" I asked.

"Did you graduate?"

I smiled, "Will at the end of this year…"

"Provided the school doesn't kick us out for missing so much school while we're here," Sora added.

I cringed a little at that, "Good point. Hayner and the others graduate at the end of this year for sure though."

"Tch, if _Hayner's _graduating then school must be a breeze," Seifer said, having walked by at the end of the conversation.

"Leave him alone Seifer," I said automatically.

"You didn't graduate Seifer," Chip said, daring the boy to prove him wrong.

"That's cuz I didn't go to school, same as you," Seifer replied.

"'Xactly," Chip said, "That means that Hayner's better than you are so stop being mean to him."

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. Hayner had always said that Chip had this odd fascination with him, but I had never seen it. Sora's hand covered his mouth and I could see his shoulders shaking a little with suppressed laughter. Riku smirked in an amused manner. Seifer huffed and stormed off.

"Hey Roxas…" one of the kids who was still flipping through the pictures said rather suddenly, "In a lot of these you're with Olette. Is she your girl now?"

Had I been eating or drinking anything I would have started choking on it. As it was I paled and both Riku and Sora burst out laughing. I sent them both a glare, which they ignored, before looking back at the kids.

"Nah, she just lives on the same island as us. The others live on the other islands that make up Destiny Islands so we don't see them as often."

"Oh…" he said and went back to looking through the pictures.

Sora was still laughing so I elbowed him in the ribs and he inhaled sharply, effectively cutting off his laughter. I sent Riku a look and he instantly shut up, not wanting to suffer the same fate.

"Tell us about school!" the girl with the moogle spoke up.

"Yeah!" a lot of the others agreed.

"What's it like?"

"Are teachers really mean?"

"Bobby says he used to get things called detentions. Are they really that bad?"

"What's homework like?"

Sora, Riku, and I answered as many questions as we could and it made me sad to think that a lot of these kids may never be able to experience something as everyday as school. By the time we finally got them all to sleep I was beyond tired.

"I had forgotten what it was like to deal with so many kids," I said quietly, leaning against one of the walls and closing my eyes.

"It's like dealing with one hundred Selphies," Riku agreed.

Sora gave a sad smile, "They'll all grow up to be like you guys, won't they?"

I looked at Sora, then back at the kids, "Most, yeah. That's the way of our city. When all of us older kids were their age we didn't work together. It was everyone fends for himself or herself. As we got older and took over the city we changed that. We all hoped if we took care of the younger kids that maybe things would start to get better. Maybe we could change things. And we have, dramatically. It's so much better now then it was when I was a kid, but it's still not fixed. It's a little discouraging, but at least they're smiling. We never smiled."

There was a heavy silence before Sora spoke again, "I hate this place."

Riku and I both looked at him so he continued, "It's horrible. It's cold, it's empty, dirty, it smells bad, and everyone seems sad all the time. But at the same time they seem happy, like this is the best thing that's ever happened to them."

I shifted a little and sighed, "You know Mulan?" I received two nods so I continued, "The government sent her father into war even though he was too old and permanently handicapped from the last time he was called to fight. She tried to go in his place and was caught. Punishment was immediate exile from her home.

"Wendy thinks that Neverland is a real place and that everything that happened in her stories really happened to her and her brothers. Peter likes to think he can fly. Alice is convinced there is such a place as Wonderland and that she ended up here after her Aunt Redd tried to kill her. Christopher Robin thinks that the bear he holds is real and that he can visit a place called the 100-Acre Woods and play with his bear and all his friends.

"Ariel," I said, nodding toward the red headed girl from Riverside, "She thinks she used to be a mermaid and that it was out of true love that she came to the world of the humans using the magic of a sea witch."

"They live in a world of delusions?" Riku asked quietly.

I nodded, "Either you live in delusions or you become hard and uncaring. That's the way we work around here."

My phone rang again and many people spun around looking confused. I pulled it out of my pocket and many of them gaped at it. I sighed quietly before answering it.

"You are one hard family to get a hold of."

I blinked a few times, trying to place the voice on the phone with a face. It took a moment but I succeeded, "Hey Tifa, trying to find Cloud again?"

"Yes, care to explain to my why no one is answering the house phone, his phone, Sora's phone, or Riku's phone?"

I frowned a little at that, "Well, the house phone is because we're not home but I donno why the other phones didn't ring."

Sora and Riku both reached into their pockets and pulled out their phones.

"No service," Riku said.

"Dead," Sora muttered with a sigh.

"Is Cloud with you?" Tifa asked.

"Yeah, hold on," I said getting up from the wall and walking over to Cloud. I handed him my phone and went back over to Sora and Riku.

"I donno about you two, but I'm going to sleep," I said as I sat back down in my spot.

Sora yawned loudly, "I second that."

Riku smiled and closed his eyes. As I drifted off I could vaguely hear Cloud arguing with Tifa about something.

* * *

Someone was shaking my shoulder and whoever it was, was about to receive a fist in their face.

"Common Rox, wake up," Cloud whispered.

Alright, maybe he wouldn't get a fist in his face but he was going to get a glare as soon as I opened my eyes.

"Roxas!" He hissed at me and I groaned quietly, opening my eyes.

"What?" I whispered back.

"Do you know your way through the underground?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Why?"

"Because Tifa and the others are outside."

"What? Why?"

"They're going to get the kids out of here so that we can take down Kadaj without having to worry about him taking it out on them."

I sighed and slowly got to my feet, "Yeah, got a light?"

Cloud pulled a penlight out of his pocket and I led the way back into the underground maze.

* * *

"I'm telling you they're not going to agree to this without a fight," I said for possibly the tenth time as I led Cloud, Aerith, Yuffie, Tifa, Barret, Cid, Reno, and Rude back into the underground.

"Yeah, yeah," Reno said, waving his hand, "We heard you. Don't talk to adults, all cops are evil, blah, blah…"

I shot him a glare; it was far too early in the morning for this crap, "How'd you get here so fast anyway?"

"Did you forget that you're looking at AVALANCHE?" Cloud asked, "We know the topside of this city like the back of our hands."

"I meant that it took us nearly a whole day by plane and Tifa was talking to you a few hours ago," I said dryly.

"First, we had a layover," Cloud said, "Second, they probably took the Highwind."

"The wha?" I asked.

"Highwind," Cid said, looking proud, "my own design. She's a beauty and much faster than your standard plane."

"And with a lot more leg room!" Yuffie added cheerfully.

"And where did you land this monstrosity?" I asked.

"The Forgotten City," Tifa said, which caused me to come to a stop.

"Wait, you walked all the way here from the Forgotten City?"

"Yeah?" Reno said.

I sighed loudly, "There is a way in here in the Forgotten City that would have saved you a lot of time and walking."

"Little late now," Rude said gruffly.

I shook my head and started walking again when the penlight I had been using to see by started to flicker.

"Uh oh," Yuffie said, echoing my thoughts.

I looked around quickly and sighed, "Well shit, here's hoping it doesn't die just yet."

"No lamps around here?" Cloud asked as we continued our trek.

I shook my head, "They're only by the ladders that lead in here. There wouldn't-"

I stopped talking rather suddenly and clicked off the penlight. One thing I liked about the people with me is that I didn't have to tell them to be quiet; they did it on their own out of instinct.

Just ahead of us was a group of people. Five people to be exact. And each and every one of them had silver hair. I was mentally using every swear word I knew and adding in a few from other languages just for giggles. I reached back and grabbed Cloud's hand. He seemed to understand as I felt him turn to grab the hand of whoever was behind them. After a moment I started forward again, leading them back to the kids through a different passage.


	8. Chapter 8

Ch. 1 has important stuffs.

* * *

I dropped down from the pipe and into the room where everyone was staying

I dropped down from the pipe and into the room where everyone was staying. Lock, Shock, and Barrel arrived seconds after I did from one of the other ones and quickly ran into the room.

"We need to evacuate!" Shock called out.

"One step ahead of you," I said, moving further into the room to allow the others to jump in.

"More of them?" Seifer sneered at me.

I jerked my thumb back at them, "Meet AVALANCHE and friends."

An awed silence fell before a couple of the kids gushed a little. I sighed; we didn't have time for this.

Peter let out another one of his ridiculously high pitched whistles and any and all noise stopped and anyone who had still been asleep was now wide awake, "Listen up!"

"This is insane," Aerith whispered behind me.

Lock stood on the highest point in the room and looked around, "We have to evacuate everyone. The guy is here and he brought some friends."

"Friends?" Riku echoed and I explained.

"Loz, Yazoo, Sephiroth, and Xemnas."

Riku paled at the mention of his father and Sora looked borderline horrified. Across the room I could hear Zack swearing.

"Where do we go?" Aladdin asked.

"The Forgotten City," Cloud said, stepping in, "We thought this might happen and planned ahead for it. In the Forgotten City there is a shuttle waiting to take all of you to safety."

"A shuttle?" Wendy repeated.

"We're going to fly?" Peter asked, looking excited.

"We get to fly too!" the Lost Boys yelled in excitement.

"What makes you all think we'll go with you?" Meg asked, a hand on her hip.

"We don't have much choice," the black haired boy who came with Ariel said.

"Eric's right," Jasmine said standing, "it's either someone we know is out to get us or the people that want to help us."

"Fine," Seifer said, moving forward, "but one slip up and we're out."

"Totally take you down, y'know?"

"Split."

"Play nice," I said tiredly.

"We need to move," Shock said, "Peter, you lead the way!"

"This way everyone!" Peter called, heading toward the pipe.

Tifa's group moved forward to flank the kids to protect them should they run into Kadaj and the others.

"Go with them," Leon said, looking at Sora, Riku, and me.

"No arguments, this is dangerous and they're going to need you guys to show them around," Cloud said.

"Show them around?" Sora repeated, "Where are we going?"

"Destiny Islands."

* * *

"Oh wow! Look at the water!"

"Is this sand?"

"It's so warm here!"

"It smells like salt!"

"Everything's so clean and pretty."

"Look at all the flowers."

We were quite the spectacle to behold, but I really didn't like being stared at. Sure there was something like one hundred kids of all ages standing on a beach dirty and thin, gaping at everyday things, but was that really any reason to stare?

Don't answer that.

I felt someone tugging on my shirt and I looked down at Chip, "Yes?"

"Can we go in the water?" the boy asked excitedly.

I hesitated, who knew how many (if any) of them knew how to swim? I glanced at Sora and Riku who seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Well… uh… do you know how to swim?" I asked.

Chip blinked then shook his head and I sighed.

"Roxas!"

I turned to see Olette shoving her way through the crowd. Axel, Zexion, and Demyx were right behind her.

"Sora! Riku!"

We all turned to see Kairi, Selphie and the boys pushing their way through the crowd on the other side.

"What the hell is going on?" Axel asked, looking at all the kids in front of us.

A few of the kids screamed in delight, which caused many of us to jump. Axel looked at me confused and I smiled.

"You're a legend," I said by way of explanation.

"What on earth is the population of Midgar doing here?" Zexion asked quietly.

"Ah," Sora said, placing a hand behind his head, "it's a long story."

"Who are all these kids?" Selphie asked, her eyes wide.

"I'm Chip!" Chip said pointing to himself proudly.

"I'm Michael," Michael said shyly, hugging his bear to him.

A bunch of others introduced themselves while the older kids shook their heads ever so slightly in amusement.

"There's so many," Kairi whispered.

"They're giving me a headache," Tidus muttered.

Peter's sharp whistle cut through the noise and absolute silence fell, "Attention!"

All the kids turned to look at Peter, the Lost Boys lining up and saluting. Aerith smiled gratefully at Peter and turned to the kids.

"Why don't we take you all to the play island where you can play while we figure some things out," Aerith said and then looked at us and I felt a feeling of dread, "Of course, Roxas and his friends can take you there."

I looked skywards in dismay and could feel the others staring at me, "Yeah, sure."

I heard Axel snort next to me and Riku groan from his place next to Sora. I agreed with Riku; I was tired too.

"What's the play island?" Alice asked, tilting her head.

Sora shot her a grin, "You'll see."

* * *

Getting to the play island was a hassle and a half but once we got there the kids ran wild. Each of the younger kids was grouped with at least one older kid and those who wanted to play in the water had to be with an older kid who could swim.

Thus the Destiny Islands kids were stuck watching the shoreline as groups of kids splashed in the waves.

"You can't just have a normal life, can you Rox?" Axel asked as he took a drag from his cigarette.

I shook my head and watched as the Lost Boys broke out in a water fight. Peter was hovering worriedly a few feet away.

"What's wrong?" Axel asked, glancing away from Wendy and Michael for a moment.

"I'm worried about Cloud and the others. We haven't heard from them. Did they catch Kadaj? Were they caught?" I sighed quietly, "I'd never forgive myself if something happened to Cloud. He's all Sora has left and we left him in Midgar," I replied.

"But he was part of the group that fought there, right? So, I mean, he knows his way around…" Axel offered before stepping forward to pull Chip back upright.

"They don't know their way around the underground and that's where we left them. With five people who are really upset with us," I said before pulling one of the twins back up before Nibs could fall on him.

"I'm sure they're fine Rox, they're big boys. They can take care of themselves," Axel said quietly.

I bit my lip but let the subject drop as Sora walked over, an upset Chip in his arms.

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, "Do I want to know?"

Sora shrugged, "I donno, I don't speak hysteric."

Axel snorted, which caused him to choke on the smoke that he didn't mean to inhale. He stubbed out the cigarette and put the dead butt in his pocket while he tried to clear out his lungs. I looked at Sora.

"I think you broke him."

"Serves him right for smoking those things to begin with," Sora replied, setting Chip on the ground.

"Ouch," Axel said, looking at Sora, "Someone has a sharp tongue today."

"Sorry," Sora said, sounding tired.

Axel frowned a little, "You're worried too, aren't you?"

Sora blinked, "'Too'?"

Axel nodded toward me and I pointedly watched the kids play in the water. Thus I was more than a little startled when Sora hugged my from behind. I could feel Axel smile as he moved closer to the kids and I slowly forced myself to relax in Sora's hold.

"Rox?"

"Hm?"

"They'll be alright, won't they?"

"They've fought Kadaj and the others before. I'm sure we'll hear from them soon," I said, leaving my answer open for interpretation.

"I didn't want to leave."

"Neither did I… but we would have distracted them," I admitted, "This way they know we're safe and can focus on watching themselves."

I felt Sora nod against my shoulder and looked back at him, "What's really wrong Sora?"

His grip tightened a little before he muttered something into my shirt. I blinked at him.

"What was that?"

"If something happens to Cloud, we'll be alone…" he whispered, echoing my words from earlier and not realizing it.

"Look around you Sora, we're never alone."

He looked up at me and I could see the tears he was trying so hard to hold back. I gave him a small smile.

"Go to the Secret Place Sora. Get some sleep, I'll send someone to wake you up later."

He nodded tiredly and let me go, "Thanks."

I waved him off and watched him walk off toward the waterfall where the kids who were afraid of the waves were playing under the watchful eyes of Olette, Selphie, and Kairi. I turned and walked back over to Axel who pretended that none of that happened. I looked up at the slowly darkening sky and silently hoped the others were alright.

* * *

It was about an hour later that Tidus and Wakka showed up with enough food for everyone and we treated the Midgar kids to an island style barbeque. Soon after that the jet lag hit them and they all fell asleep on the beach. The rest of us agreed that it would be easier just to stay there ourselves, so after cleaning everything up we walked around the island to find a spot to crash.

So how on earth we got caught up in an epic water fight is still beyond me.

Riku shook his head, sending water flying in every direction and causing shouts of surprise and protest to echo around him, "Man, I will take salt water over sewer water any day."

"Sewer water?" Kairi repeated, making a face, "What on earth were you doing with sewer water?"

"Walking through it," Sora replied as he dodged a splash that Demyx sent his way.

"What? Why?" Selphie asked, standing upright.

"To get into the pipes," I replied.

Everyone else stopped and the Destiny Islands natives stared at us (minus Riku and Sora of course).

Axel smirked, "You were over in Hightonview?"

"Hightonview House was our house," Olette said.

"You guys got the Hightonview House?" Demyx asked, clearly impressed, "How'd you pull that off?"

I shook my head a little, "I really don't remember. That whole thing's still a blur."

Olette shrugged, "They already had it when I came around."

"What are you guys talking about?" Tidus asked, confused.

Riku, however, looked somewhere between depressed and amused, "I actually followed that."

Sora nodded, "Yeah, so did I… how did you know we came from the Hightonview side though?"

Zexion smirked, "The other ways you can get to the main meeting place without going through the water. The Hightonview side you have to. There's no way around it."

"Figures," Riku muttered moodily.

A flash of light on the ocean caused us all to turn and look at the boat that was slowly and silently making its way toward us.

"Who's there?" Wakka called and got no reply.

"I can't see a thing," Axel murmured, "Maybe if we had a light…"

"Oh, I do," I said, remembering the penlight I had taken from Cloud, "Donno if it'll still work since it was tweaking in the underground…"

I pulled it out of my pocket and flicked the light on. I shone it toward the boat and nearly dropped the light into the water. Two bodies were lying on the boat, slashed to ribbons.

That was when Olette, Kairi, and Selphie started screaming.


	9. Chapter 9

Stuff you need to know in Ch. 1. Start of Akuroku stuff.

* * *

Reno and Rude were the first ones to get there

Reno and Rude were the first ones to get there. Apparently they could hear us screaming from the main island.

Yeah, 'us'. Once the girls started screaming the rest of us joined them.

We also woke up everyone on the play island, but once the older kids discovered what was happening they led everyone to the other side of the island.

Tidus, Wakka, and the girls went with them.

"Well, from the looks of them I'd say they came from Midgar," Reno said with a slight nod, "No one that we know though," he added after a glance at us.

"What does it mean?" Sora asked quietly.

"Nothing, it means nothing," Rude said.

Despite that both he and Reno stayed with us the rest of the night and two other Turks showed up at dawn. They called themselves Elena and Tseng.

I didn't like them as much as I liked Reno and Rude.

Sora was on the verge of a complete and total freak out by the time we had breakfast that morning. We still hadn't heard from Cloud or the others and they were sending Turks to guard us.

No, this did not bode well at all.

Riku seemed to be feeding off of Sora's mood since he wasn't used to this stressed out, scared, upset Sora. He was twice as bitchy and twice as quiet.

Not that I could talk since (judging by the looks I was getting) I was being just as snappish and rude.

By the time lunch rolled around, Axel was dragging me away from everyone and taking me to the Secret Spot. "For the sake of everyone's continued existence," is what he had said when I asked him why.

Alright, so I was in a bad mood, bite me.

"Sit," Axel ordered once we had gotten into the Secret Spot.

I glared defiantly, but then did as he said. He sighed and gracefully sat behind me. I blinked, but before I could ask his hands were on my shoulders and working on a knot that I had there.

I melted right then and there.

"Better?" he asked as he continued to massage around my neck.

"Mm hmm…" I said, opening my eyes again (when had I closed them?).

We fell into a rather comfortable silence for a while before he spoke again, "You know, I'm scared too…"

I blinked and tried to look back at him, but failed, "Of what?"

"Something happening to Cloud, or Leon, or Zack, hell, even Vincent… Zex, Dem, and I still don't have adults in our lives. Those four are the closest things we've ever had to guardians. Cloud takes care of us all the time, and Zack pops in every now and then to make sure everything's alright. Leon calls about once a week to see if we need anything. Vincent keeps tabs on us through all his connections…"

"I… never thought of that…" I said quietly.

"Plus, I donno if you recall, but it was Dem, Zex, and I who found you guys that day and recorded the whole confession. I don't think that Kadaj is too happy with us either."

I smiled sadly, "No, probably not."

His hands stopped moving, "Don't smile like that Rox, sadness doesn't suit you."

I turned to look at him, but anything I was about to say was cut off when his lips found mine. Without hesitation I kissed him back and I could feel him relax a little. It was ok… everything was going to be just fine.

And in that moment I was almost able to believe it.

* * *

"Roxas, come play with us!" Tootles said from the bridge that led to Riku's tree.

I raised an eyebrow at Riku who was sitting on his tree and he shrugged in defeat. I snorted at that and walked over. Sora was locked in a battle with Peter using the wooden swords he and Riku had made when they were kids.

Sora was winning.

I smirked in amusement as I came into earshot, "Well at least Sora can beat _someone_."

"Quiet Roxas," Sora said, but there was a slight smile on his face.

"That's what I said," Riku smirked.

"Do my ears deceive me or did Riku and Roxas just agree with one another against Sora of all people?" Axel asked as he followed me.

"We called a truce," I said by way of explanation.

Axel looked surprised but held his tongue. I figured I had Sora being within earshot to thank for that.

Sora swung the wooden sword again, this time knocking the one Peter was holding from his hands and sending it into the water below. Cheers came from all sides and I jumped off the small island that only had the tree on it and grabbed the sword out of the water.

"You want to fight me Rox?" Sora asked teasingly.

"If we fight I want to use our blades," I said, tossing him the wooden sword.

"You have real swords?" Nibs asked sounding excited.

"No," Sora, Riku, Axel and I all said in unison.

"What did you mean by 'blades' then?" the twins asked.

"I'll get them," Riku said, hopping down from his tree, "But I get to fight winner."

"You're on," I agreed and Sora nodded.

* * *

"Common Roxas!"

"Get him Sora!"

"Watch your side!"

"Oh! Duck!"

Sora and I had attracted quite a crowd while we had been fighting. I didn't have the time to look and see how many of them were watching us, but I knew it was most of them. I didn't mind though, I was enjoying myself.

Sora was too, I could tell as the fight went on that he was becoming more relaxed and happy. Apparently dueling with sharp objects was a good way for him to relieve stress.

I swung my blade around to block his attack, but the blades never hit. In the same moment Sora and I both froze mid-swing. Everyone looked confused and started asking questions, but we both waved at them to shut up and turned toward the noise that we had both heard.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see that both Riku and Axel had tensed and were looking in the same direction as we were. Something was very wrong.

"Hey," Sora said suddenly, his voice sounding too loud in the tense silence, "When was the last time someone saw Elena or Tseng?"

A frown crossed Olette's face, "Now that you mention it, not in a few hours."

"Is that what made you guys stop?" Aladdin asked with a tilt of his head.

I held up a hand, asking for silence and it was granted. I had seen a glint of something at the edge of the woods. Apparently Riku had seen it too as he slowly kneeled to pick up his Way to Dawn that he had been going to use to fight whoever won mine and Sora's fight.

Axel glanced at Zexion and Demyx quickly and Zexion melted into the crowd. I was willing to bet that he had gone off to get Axel's chakrams and Demyx's sitar that doubled as a weapon.

A pan knife appeared in Peter's hand and he glanced at me. I nodded a little and he threw the knife at the spot there we had seen the glint. There was only silence.

"Someone caught it," Riku whispered, following my own (slightly slower) train of thought.

"What?" Kairi asked.

"We should have heard it hit the ground or a tree. Someone caught it," I expanded.

"Ambush!" Fuu suddenly yelled as people jumped out of the tree houses and surrounded us.

"Who are they?" Riku asked, moving his blade into a protective position.

"The gangs from Midgar," Seifer growled, "I bet it was two of their members that were in the boat."

I nodded seriously, ignoring them for the moment and searching for silver in the treetops. Zexion had reappeared and handed Axel and Demyx their weapons and all the older kids were making a protective circle around the younger.

I shifted my hold on the keyblade in my right hand and threw it straight at the tree in front of me. Shouts of surprise came from around me turned to shock as a double bladed sword came out of the tree and deflected my keyblade. I moved the one in my left hand quickly to my right.

"Very good Roxy, you're learning," Kadaj said as he stepped out onto a branch.

I forced myself not to flinch when he called me Roxy and mostly succeeded, "Where are the others Kadaj?"

"Here, there, everywhere," Kadaj said, waving his hand around a little, "Never you mind though, it's you, you have to worry about."

"You're out numbered even with your back up Kadaj," Riku yelled up at him, looking angrier then I had ever seen him.

"You mean those Turks? Or were you actually referring to yourself brother?" Kadaj asked mockingly.

Riku growled and Sora gently bumped him with his arm, which caused Riku to calm down a little.

"While we're on the subject," Axel called out, "What did you do to the Turks?"

"Don't worry, we sent them home," Kadaj said with a rather evil smile, "Now then, I have other things to attend to. You boys have fun."

With that he turned and walked back into his hiding place and no doubt back to the boat he had come here on.

"Fabulous," Sora muttered.

"Now you die!" one of the gang members yelled as they all rushed us.

Absolute chaos broke out all over. After the initial sweep the girls were able to get the little kids to the Secret Place to keep them safe. The rest of us were too busy fighting for our lives to pay them much mind.

Apparently the gangs had, had more people still hiding in the shadows since we no longer outnumbered them. It wasn't long before I found my self backed against the rock near the waterfall. I took a deep breath and got ready for the pain that was going to come when I attacked when two of my three attackers fell over.

My other attacker and I were so surprised that we stood in shock for a moment before I knocked him out. Standing there, grinning at me, was none other then Hanyer.

"Hey man, we miss the party?"

I grinned at him, "That's twice you've saved my life."

"Buy me an ice cream when this is over and we'll call it even."

"Deal."

We both turned and charged right back into the battle. I slashed my way through opponents while Hayner punched his way through his. We slowly made our way toward where Sora was fighting and I was relieved to see that Riku was right beside him. Hayner ran off to help Pence and Axel quickly took his place by my side.

"Something's off!" He called to me as he fended off would be attackers.

"I think it's a distraction," I called back, "but I don't know why he would want to keep us here."

"Unless we're the bait for someone else to take," he called back to me and that caused me to freeze mid-swing.

"Like who?" I asked, ducking an attack.

"Donno, maybe they're planning something else," Axel offered.

"Other than trying to off us you mean," I said dryly before doing a roundhouse kick and sending my attacker flying.

Axel copied me and turned to look at me, "Yeah, other than that. You really think they'd break out of jail to take some revenge on a bunch of teens under the protection and friendship of the police, Turks, and AVALANCHE?"

"Fair point," I said, blocking an attack from hitting Axel, "what do you think they're planning then?"

"I have no idea," Axel replied, blocking an attack from hitting me.

"You remember that story Cloud told?" Riku called, clearly having heard our conversation.

"Yeah, what about it?" I said even though Axel looked confused.

"You know Shinra? Well they used to have another form of bodyguards other than the Turks. They had what they called SOLDIERS. Sephiroth was one of them," Riku continued, "When he found out what Shinra was actually doing he left with the intent of destroying it. Cloud and the others beat him to it."

"Cloud always said that Sephiroth was an enemy," Sora called out from behind Riku.

"Because once Shinra was destroyed he went a little crazy. Now he wants to destroy everything," Riku said, clearing a path to get to us.

"Everything?" Axel repeated.

Riku nodded, "He wants to take revenge on the planet."

We all turned to stare at Riku before I burst out, "And it never occurred to you that this was a bad thing?"

"I said that I didn't know Kadaj went off the deep end, you guys never asked about Sephiroth," Riku corrected.

"So then, what he's doing now-," Sora started.

"Is attacking us here-," I continued.

"In order to draw the others here-," Axel said quietly.

"So that he can start his plan unhindered," Riku finished.

With a renewed vigor (if not a bit of fear and dread) we launched ourselves back into the heart of the battle. Twenty minutes later we were all bruised, bloody, and tired as all hell, but we were the victors.

"We need to move fast," Axel panted.

Riku nodded his agreement, standing upright, "Yeah, where should we start though?"

"First and foremost," I said, resting my keyblade across my shoulder, "I think we should check our house. They started there last time and even if they didn't this time we can call the others."

"I agree," Sora said with a nod.

"Where ever you're going, we're coming too," Hayner cut in.

"Same with us," Zexion said, indicating toward himself and Demyx.

"I don't-," I started, only to be cut off.

"I don't give a fuck what you may or may not think _Roxas. _We're going now get your ass in that boat and let's go," Demyx growled.

Oh hell… Demyx's angry personality was out and about. This should be a fun venture.

"Er, right…" Sora said, glancing at Demyx in worry, "Let's go. Everyone else, stay here and watch yourselves."


	10. Chapter 10

Ch. 1 for need to knows.

* * *

Our house was untouched, something that I was rather relieved over

Our house was untouched, something that I was rather relieved over. I really hadn't wanted to come home and find another table in the wall.

I walked over to the phone and dialed Cloud's number first out of sheer habit. Much to my surprise, Zack picked up.

"Hello, Cloud's phone, Zack speaking."

"Are you guys alright? Where the hell are you?" the words were out of my mouth before I could stop them and Sora snapped around to look at me.

"We're a little beat up, but fine. We're in Midgar, trying to find out where they ran off to."

"Kadaj came here and he brought some Midgar gangs with him. I donno what they did with Elena and Tseng."

There was a pause before Zack went off on a cursing fit. There was some noise in the background and I could hear Zack telling someone (probably Leon or Vincent) what I had just told him (using much more colorful language). There was a pause before Leon came on the line.

"Where are you?"

"We just got back to the house," I said, "We had been on the play island with the kids. We were ambushed but we took them out. Kadaj ran off before the fight broke out."

"Where are Reno and Rude?"

"Sleeping I'd assume. They spent last night with us and had Elena and Tseng stay with us today. Like I said though, I donno what happened to them."

I motioned for Riku to come here and he walked forward as I heard Leon cursing, "Leon, talk to Riku. I think his theory is right."

I handed him the phone and moved toward our room. Axel followed me while Sora hovered by Riku. Hayner, Pence, Demyx, and Zexion headed for the living room.

"They still in Midgar?"

I nodded as I took my phone off its charger and started dialing another number I had come to know by heart; Reno's.

"You better be calling for a good reason," a groggy voice came through the phone.

"We were ambushed."

There was a pause and I could hear movement, no doubt him getting out of bed, "What? Where are Elena and Tseng? Where are you? Who did the ambushing?"

"I donno where they are, we're at my house right now, we left the others on the island, and Kadaj with gangs from Midgar."

"Wake up Rude!" Reno hissed before turning his attention back to me, "Don't move, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah," I said in a bored manner.

The connection was cut and I pocketed my phone. I let out a deep breath, trying to calm the adrenaline that was pulsing through me.

"What'd he say?"

"To stay put," I muttered, slightly annoyed.

Axel smiled a little and leaned down to give me a kiss. I met him half way and felt myself start to relax again. I sighed against his mouth and moved back enough to talk.

"Do you think that they'll come after us?"

"Donno, it's hard to say."

"Kids say he was asking about me and that he mentioned Riku and Sora."

His arms slid around my waist and slowly pulled me closer, "Then possibly. Unless they're trying to throw us off."

I was having trouble keeping up with the conversation at this point, "Wait, what?"

Axel laughed quietly before capturing my lips again, "Don't worry about it, alright? You're just going to stress yourself out and then you won't be focused."

I gave a slight nod, suddenly realizing just how tired I was. I hadn't slept the night before and the night before that my sleep had been interrupted, and two days before that is when we flew to Midgar so jetlag had me all out of whack.

"Can I sleep?" I whispered, feeling so drained.

I never heard an answer as I succumbed to the inviting darkness.

* * *

I once again was waking up to someone shaking my shoulder. I assumed it was Axel since he was the last person I could remember seeing so I batted at the hand. The person sighed and I could feel my brain start to churn a little.

"Get up Roxas."

That was not Axel's voice. Nor was it Sora's. Or Hayner's, Pence's, Zexion's, Demyx's, or Riku's for that matter. It sounded like…

"Cloud?" I muttered, fighting to open my eyes; they just felt so heavy.

A slightly beat up looking Cloud smiled at me, "Morning."

"When did you get back?" I slurred sleepily.

"Few minutes ago."

"How long have I been out?"

"Few hours, we took the Highwind back."

"Did they find Elena and Tseng?"

Cloud nodded, "They're in intensive care right now."

I made a noise and not even I was sure what the noise was supposed to mean. Cloud seemed to realize it since he smiled again.

"If you're this hard to wake up then I really don't want to try to wake Sora up."

I blinked at him, confused, before rolling over and seeing that Sora was sound asleep on his bed. I idly wondered when he had fallen asleep, but found it to be too much effort to give it much thought.

"Where's everyone else?" I asked after a while of silence.

"Well, Reno and Rude are working on finding places for all those kids to stay other than an island in the middle of the ocean. Leon went back to the station to check for anything that may hint as to what Sephiroth and the others might be up to. Zack's downstairs keeping everyone else company and Vincent is with the rest of AVALANCHE checking the island."

That was a little too much information for my sleep fogged brain, but I nodded to show I had heard him.

He carefully walked over to Sora's bed and it took me a moment to realize what was so odd about this movement.

"You're hurt?" I asked, rolling over so I could still see him.

"Just my shoulder," Cloud said like it was nothing.

I frowned, "Which shoulder?"

There was a pause, "My right one."

"You won't be able to wield the buster blade," I commented quietly.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Cloud responded before using his left hand to shake Sora awake.

"No," Sora whined in his sleep, "Go away…"

Cloud sighed and in my half awake state I thought up an evil plan, "Hey Sora, Riku's dancing around the kitchen naked."

Cloud spun to stare at me and Sora sat bolt upright looking around confused.

"Who? What? Where?" Sora asked, blinking rapidly before he noticed Cloud and nearly launched himself at the blonde.

"Cloud! You're alright! When Kadaj showed up here…" he trailed off, apparently unable to finish that thought.

Cloud cringed a little when Sora impacted with him but otherwise didn't show that he had been hurt. He wrapped his left arm around Sora with a quiet sigh.

"I'm sorry we didn't call… we were a little busy."

I sat up in bed and crossed my legs, "Did Leon tell you what Riku said?"

Cloud nodded, "I knew about some of it; we've had to fight Sephiroth before. I didn't know that he had brought his brothers in on it though."

"What about their dad?" Sora asked, "I mean, they broke him out too. Was it just a sense of family duty, or do they need him for their plan?"

"I wish I knew," Cloud said quietly, "Common, let's get something to eat and then we can all discuss this."

Sora and I both hopped out of bed and followed Cloud downstairs to where the others were waiting.

* * *

"Nothing, not a sign of him anywhere," Barret said as he fell into one of the chairs in the kitchen.

"They have to be somewhere, they can't just disappear," Leon said reasonably from where he was leaning against the counter.

Sora and I were sitting on the counter a little ways away from him, Riku, Axel, Demyx, Zexion, Hayner, and Pence filled the space around the entryway. Cloud was sitting across from Barret and Aerith was tending to his shoulder wound. Turns out he was stabbed. By Sephiroth.

Vincent was leaning on the half wall behind Barret that separated the kitchen from the dining room with his arms crossed. Yuffie and Tifa had taken the other two chairs at the table.

Zack was sitting on the counter across from Sora and myself and Reno and Rude were standing in the doorway that led to the dining room.

It's a good thing none of us are claustrophobic.

Cid walked back into the room wiping his hands off on a cloth, "Well, we're all going to have to tread carefully for a while. You find anything useful Leon?"

"The only thing the station had was the phone call from Vincent telling them that Kadaj was going to try and break the others out," the brunette replied.

"How did he do that anyway?" I asked with a frown, "I mean, you called them and told them it was going to happen. Surely they added some security or something."

"We think that someone in the station is working with them. It's the only way this could have happened," Zack said with a sigh.

"Who?" Reno asked.

"Who knows?" Cloud replied, "Vincent, who did you talk to when you called?"

"The chief and before you ask I have no idea who he told to do what," Vincent replied.

"Well if someone is working on the inside, then we'll-," Leon stopped abruptly as the house started to shake.

"What the hell?" Axel asked, grabbing the handle of the fridge to stay upright.

Everyone else grabbed various things to hold themselves in place and Sora and I had to shield ourselves as the window next to us shattered.

"Look!" Reno said, pointing out the broken window.

A tall office building a few blocks over was engulfed in flames.

"Son of a bitch," Zack whispered, staring at the building.

Fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars came screaming by, their lights and sirens going. Tifa stood and walked over to get a better look at the destruction.

"But why? What's the purpose?" she whispered in confusion.

Cloud shook his head gently, "I have no idea…"

* * *

After the explosion Tifa and Barret had rushed off to check on Denzel and Marlene. Cid was fixing the kitchen window and Leon, Zack, and Vincent were ignoring their ringing cell phones.

An hour afterwards we still had no answers as to why they would blow up a building. We knew it was them; it was too much of a coincidence not to be.

The tv was on and the news was playing. They had yet to say anything useful.

"It could just be random," Reno said after a tense silence.

"What, they randomly attacked a large building to catch our attention and drive us insane trying to figure out the reason behind it when there was no reason?" Leon asked, "Cuz it's working."

I looked at Leon oddly, "Did you just make a joke?"

He shot me a dark look and it made me feel a little better.

"Maybe that's it though," Cloud said, looking thoughtful.

"They're trying to drive us insane?" Zack repeated.

Cloud shook his head, "Maybe they chose the tallest building that was near us to catch our attention."

We paused for a moment before Cid spoke, "It is – was the tallest building that your house could see."

"That would mean they know where you are," Yuffie observed.

"If they have someone working at the police station it wouldn't be too hard to find," Rude said.

"So why not just attack us directly?" Reno asked.

"Because that's what they tried last time and it got them caught. They're trying a different approach," Vincent said.

"Interesting choice," Axel said dryly.

"Well," Riku said, speaking for the first time since the explosion, "He does want to destroy everything."

Another pause before Aerith spoke, "Two birds with one stone…"

"This is all making my head hurt," Sora whined, "What was the point of breaking out if they're just going to destroy everything? What about their mom? Aren't they still looking for her? And was their dad always part of the plan or did they have a chitchat while they were in jail? And why are they looking for Riku? Do they think they can get him to help them?"

"Stop it Sora, you're making _my_ head hurt," Demyx complained.

"Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way," Zexion said slowly.

We all turned to look at the local genius and waited for him to finish his thought, "We keep trying to figure out what Kadaj and Sephiroth want. What if this isn't about them and they're the followers, not the leaders?"

"Well, that would probably make Xemnas the leader," Hayner said after a moment of silence.

"Let's follow that way of thinking," Leon stated logically, "If Xemnas is the mastermind behind this whole bit then that would explain why he was broken out too."

"He also has a lot to be angry about," Zack offered, "He lost all his kids one way or another, he was thrown in jail, all his assets were frozen, and his reputation was ruined."

"So he finds out about everything that Kadaj and Sephiroth were doing," Reno continued.

"And he twists it a little to fit his own needs," Vincent added.

"That still brings us back to what does he want," I pointed out.

"But there's less questions this way," Yuffie said with a smile.

"I think he's the one who wants Riku," Cloud said, "Which makes sense, being that he is his son and all."

"Kadaj wants Roxas," Zexion said without hesitation, "probably blames him for everything coming undone. Sephiroth wants Sora."

"What? Why?" Riku asked before I could.

"Because Cloud took something away from Sephiroth, now Sephiroth wants to take something from Cloud," Zexion stated simply.

"So then, the explosion…" Axel said quietly.

"Was to lure us out into the open," Zexion agreed.

"Then why not take us out on the island? We were stranded out there and no one would have realized a thing," Pence said in confusion.

"Only Kadaj was there," Zexion replied, "the other two want Riku and Sora and while he could have probably taken Roxas it would have tipped us off."

"Then why not take all three of us?" Riku asked, still confused.

"It's a revenge game," Vincent stated, "They want to do the capturing on their own."

"Fabulous," I snarled venomously before getting up and heading for a nice, long, hot shower.


	11. Chapter 11

Enter a bit of Soriku and more Akuroku . Important stuff in ch.1

* * *

I was pouting. I'd never admit to it, but I was. We were back in school (much to our disappointment) and our teachers didn't seem to find 'we had to go out of town to help the police because the people who tried to kill us two years ago escaped' a believable reason for having missed school.

So it sounded a little far-fetched, it was the truth dammit.

Anyway, it meant that we had a lot of catching up to do and we had spent most of the day staring at the board utterly confused. Cops spent the day walking around campus. The official reason was that there was a break out and they wanted parents to feel safe about their kids being at school.

The real reason was because the last time something like this happened it was while we were at school that we were kidnapped.

We weren't allowed to spend our lunch off campus like we normally did so Axel and company came to us. Sora and I hadn't noticed them at first as we had been trying to puzzle out what we had missed our math class.

"So… we have to make sin³θ+cos²θsinθ equal sinθ?" Sora asked, staring at the paper in confusion.

I groaned and flipped through the book again, "Dammit, who the hell came up with this crap?"

"Factor out a sine," Zexion said from behind me, causing me to start a little.

"Christ, warn a guy," I whispered.

"Factor out a sine?" Sora repeated, "You can do that?"

"Yes," Zexion said simply.

I huffed and covered my face with my hands, "You are going to be stolen to explain all of this to us later, you do know that, right?"

Axel laughed quietly as he slid into a seat next to me, "So, I couldn't help but notice that we were nearly strip searched for trying to get on campus."

Kairi choked on her water, "What? No way!"

"Zack had to come and save us," Demyx said with a grin.

"Man, I pity anyone who went off campus," Tidus said.

"They let people off campus?" Axel asked, tilting his head.

"Yeah, everyone except us," Sora said, still working on the math problem.

Zexion and Demyx took a seat. Demyx struck up a conversation with the girls and Zexion started to help Sora on the math problem. I turned my attention back to my food, but was soon distracted by fingers dancing across my knee.

I shot a glance at Axel out of the corner of my eye to see him watching Zexion explain the problem. There was an amused smirk on his face that gave him away though. I tried to ignore him and just eat my lunch, but he seemed determined to not let that happen. He was slowly making his way up my thigh, stopping every few inches to make circles.

Slowly but surely I lost any and all ability to focus on anything except his hand.

Oddly enough, my reprieve came from someone who wasn't sitting at the table.

"See? I told you, no sweat!"

Everyone turned to see Peter and the Lost Boys standing a few feet away talking to Zack. Zack was frowning a little at something while Peter and the boys looked triumphant.

"Damn…" Zack whispered, "That took you, what, five seconds?"

"Told ya, nothin', no where, no how can keep us out," Slightly said proudly.

"You think we're bad, be glad it wasn't Lock, Shock, and Barrel," Peter said with a grin, "They would have been in here faster than us."

Zack let out a loud sigh, "Leon's not gonna be happy…"

"No, he's not," Leon said, a few feet away with his arms crossed.

Zack laughed nervously as he turned to face Leon. Leon ignored him and walked over to us.

"When do you three have your next classes?" Leon asked Axel, Zexion, and Demyx.

"I've got some time to kill," Axel replied.

"Like ten minutes," Demyx said, glancing at his watch.

"I'm done for the day, why?" Zexion replied.

"I want you two to play body guard then," Leon responded.

"What? Aw, common Leon!" Sora protested.

"No," he said, then looked at Axel and Zexion who both nodded, "Good."

With that he walked back over to Zack who went into explaining he wanted some of the kids to test the security around the perimeter. I wanted to laugh at him, he really chose some bad kids if he actually wanted to keep them out.

Axel stood, then grabbed my arm and pulled me up as well.

"Ack! What the hell?" I said, looking at him pissed.

"I have to go to the bathroom and I can't play bodyguard with you out here," he responded cheerfully.

"I hate you…" was my only reply as he drug me off with him.

* * *

Axel checked the bathroom to see if anyone was around and I was starting to think he was taking this bodyguard thing a little too seriously when he pushed me against the door and kissed me; hard.

I couldn't stop the groan, but not from lack of trying I assure you.

He shifted and placed a knee between my legs and I inhaled sharply. He moved away from my lips and trailed his own lightly over my neck.

"As much as I'd love to know what sorts of noises you can make," Axel said, causing a quiet whine to come from me, "we are in a public place that is surrounded by cops. I don't really want to make them come running."

"I hear a 'but' coming," I replied, mentally cringing at how breathy I sounded.

"But all this tension and danger is proving to be quite the turn on."

I made another quiet noise that I have no name for. He grinned and caught my mouth in another bruising kiss while his hands moved up my sides. I gasped and he instantly slid his tongue into my mouth.

I expected him to taste like his cigarettes, but he didn't. He tasted like spice, and kind of like smoked meat. It wasn't a hot spice, but it wasn't sweet like cinnamon. It was more like cinnamon flavored gum.

I took a moment to decipher the taste that was Axel before I started to put up a bit of a fight. I pushed back and made him fight to keep his ground. He made a quiet noise of pleasure, rocking his knee into me.

Luckily his mouth was on mine or I would have made a hell of a lot of noise. I could feel him smirk against me as he pulled away for air.

We both stood there, just breathing for a moment. After I had regained my breath I sent him a slight glare.

"That wasn't nice."

He laughed, "Well, I think we have officially been gone too long."

I felt myself blush at the thought of the questions that we were going to receive and Axel made a noise low in this throat.

"Dammit Rox, stop looking so cute."

I huffed at him and turned, walking out of the bathroom. He laughed and followed me out.

* * *

I sighed as I walked up the stairs toward my room. I was tired of listening to everyone talk about us and what to do, so I decided to follow Sora's lead and go to try to figure out my homework.

I didn't pay any mind to the fact that the bedroom door was shut. Sora usually closed it when he was doing homework. I did, however, pay a whole lot of attention to the scene that I walked in on.

Apparently Sora was _not _doing his homework.

No, he and Riku were making out in the desk chair.

I blinked a few times while my brain tried desperately to process what I was seeing. Apparently neither of them had heard me open the door so I quietly backed out (trying not to think about why Sora would be making that noise) and shut the door as quietly as I possibly could.

I shook my head a little bit, trying to clear the image from my mind and failing miserably. I turned and decided that I was going to be doing my homework in Riku's room.

* * *

I had nearly finished half my catch-up work when Riku walked into his room. He froze when he saw me sitting at his desk.

"Hey Riku," I said with slightly false cheerfulness, "How's it going?"

Riku paled a little, "You totally walked in, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah," I agreed without hesitation, "Word of advice, either lock the door or put the chair under the knob. I suppose the chair was out of the question since you seemed rather comfortable on it."

He cringed a little, "You going to yell now?"

I sighed and shook my head, "No."

"No?"

"No, I'm not going to yell at you. If I yelled at you I'd have to yell at Sora too."

Riku looked at me suspiciously, "What are you hiding?"

I gathered up my books and smiled sweetly, "Wouldn't you like to know."

With that I walked back into my room to see Sora actually was doing his homework this time. I dumped my stuff on my bed and sat on it, staring at him until he felt uneasy.

"Is there a reason you're staring?" Sora asked, not looking up from his homework.

"You know Sora, I never thought you'd be so aggressive, especially with Riku," I replied.

He spun around so fast I wondered if he had given himself whiplash, his face going from pale to a lovely shade of red, "W-What?"

"You heard me," I replied, "How long have you two been… ah… engaging?"

He blushed harder, "Ah… today…"

"Really? So that aggression was pent up-," Sora's hand flew out and covered my mouth.

"Please don't," he nearly whispered.

I moved back a little so I could talk, "Don't what?"

"Talk about it," he murmured.

I smiled, "Aw, are you embarrassed?"

"You would be too!" he said, his emotions caught somewhere between desperation, annoyance, and mortified.

I paused and thought about it for a moment, "Probably," I agreed, "but that's why I don't get caught."

His jaw dropped and he was on my bed in a heartbeat, "So Roxas, what have you not been telling me?"


	12. Chapter 12

Important stuff in ch. 1 ... don't kill me for the ending...

* * *

Something wasn't right and I knew something wasn't right but being that I was off in a dream world I couldn't really place what it was. It was so quiet though, so you'd think that-

Quiet.

It shouldn't be quiet; I should be able to hear Sora moving in his sleep and the occasional snore from Riku or Cloud.

So, why was it so quiet?

Did I fall asleep on the couch or something? The last thing I could remember…

What was the last thing I could remember?

I remember talking to Riku and Sora and then heading down to find some dinner. Someone was there… Riku had said something. Then black.

What had Riku said? It had been important. I know it was. It had something to do with the person that as there.

Wait, why had that person been there? And where was Cloud for that matter?

Yeah, something was very wrong.

And why the _hell _can't I seem to open my eyes?!

"He's coming around."

"Good, the others should be soon as well then."

"Oh what fun we will have…"

"Calm yourself, they're still a ways off from actually waking up."

Voices, some familiar, some not. Even though I couldn't place faces or names with the voices there was a feeling of dread in my stomach. I don't think I wanted to wake up.

"The other little Strife's coming around."

Sora…

"Mm… it's the big one I want."

…Cloud? Someone was after Cloud?

"Patience brother."

"I've _been _patient!"

"Boys…" a female voice. Who could that be?

"Sorry mother."

_Mother? _I had to stop myself from gasping out loud. That's what Riku had said!

"Hey Cloud, what's for – who are you?" Sora came to a sudden stop upon seeing a woman standing near the doorway.

_Riku faltered, looking absolutely shocked, "Mother?"_

_I turned to look at him, "'Mother'?"_

_The woman gave us a bright smile, "I'm sorry baby, but it has to be done."_

"_Wh-," Riku went down and Sora quickly followed him. I turned and was able to catch a flash of silver before the world went black._

So, their mother had been in on the whole thing? I was getting more and more confused by the second.

A sharp pain in my cheek brought me out of my thoughts, "Hurry up and wake up!"

"Father, please."

"Why do you care? He's the one who got you put in jail."

"Uncle, causing him harm won't make the others cooperate."

"Fine, but as soon as you're through with him…."

"Of course…"

Yeah, I really, really didn't want to wake up.

* * *

"Good morning brother."

I mentally cursed, stupid Riku, what was he thinking waking up like that?

"Untie me," Riku said, his voice a low threat.

I didn't dare shift to see if I was tied up at well.

"Now dear, calm down. We'll untie you in do time." That female voice again.

"What the hell is going on anyway? Why are you here?" Riku demanded.

"In do time dear, in do time. For now though, we need to have a bit of a chat."

"Yes son, you see your behavior has been less than satisfactory." That was Xemnas.

"I don't live by your standards."

Watch your mouth Riku…

I could hear him inhale sharply and bit back a sigh.

"Don't touch him," Riku said in a dangerous tone.

Fear ran through me; the only reason Riku would be that pissed is if they were threatening to do something to Sora. Aw hell…

I opened one of my eyes a crack to see that the group was focused on two examining like tables across the room. That meant they all had their backs to me.

I could work with that.

I opened my eyes fully and saw that I was also strapped down. Puts a slight damper on my plans, but still workable.

I glanced over to see that Cloud was peering at them cautiously and taking in his surroundings as well. I moved my hand a little and his eyes went to the motion before realizing I was trying to get his attention.

I paused, unsure of how to communicate with him without catching the others' attention. He seemed to realize my dilemma and he frowned a little, looking around the room. I did the same and froze at what I saw on the table. I moved my hand again and Cloud looked at me. I nodded toward the rolling table next to me. He paled.

Tools used for surgery were lying on the table.

It was a good thing I was already lying down because the world rather suddenly spun. Where the hell were we that there were examining tables and surgery equipment? Couldn't be a hospital, someone would recognize them and call the police.

"Where are we?" Riku asked, and I was so glad that he did.

"The coroner's office at the PD," Kadaj answered.

And everything snapped right into place. Riku's mom was the one who was the leak at the PD. Kadaj wasn't looking for her back in Midgar, he was trying to contact her without getting caught. She probably helped with the breakouts too, which would be why they were so quick and quiet.

Sora just _had _to be friends with Riku, didn't he?

"What?" Riku sputtered, "Why?"

"We're going to play a little game," Sephiroth said, moving toward where I assumed Sora was, "How much will it take to break all of you?"

I pulled against my restraints, any noise that I might have made covered up by Riku's own shout.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"It's a fun game brother, you shall see," Sephiroth said in response.

I glared hatefully at the unyielding restraints. A thought occurred to me and I relaxed my muscles completely.

I had a little room to move.

I made my arm as small as I could and as quietly as I could I began the slow process of pulling it out.

"This is not a game!" Riku shouted, sounding borderline hysteric, "What are you going to do to him?"

Don't ask Riku, you never ask… it was too wide just past my wrist. Stupid thumbs, always getting in the way. I tucked it down as much as I could and began working against the restraints again.

"That all depends on you cousin," a man with hair almost as long as Sephiroth's answered.

"What do you mean?" Riku asked carefully.

I could feel my hand burning where the leather was rubbing against the skin.

"You remember SOLDIER, don't you?" the other cousin who had the shortest hair in the family said, "Well, they have this thing called mako."

I could feel Cloud tense even if I couldn't see him at the moment. Whatever they were planning was really bad if it was freaking Cloud out.

"They put it in me brother," Sephiroth continued, "So I put it in everyone else."

He made a sweeping motion toward his family members.

"Except you, that is," Sephiroth said, looking back at Riku.

"If it's the reason you're all completely insane then count me out," Riku replied.

"Well that's why we have your friends here," Xemnas said, "Well, that and they all deserve to be punished for all they have done."

I was bleeding now, but that was alright because it was making my skin slippery and I was able to move easier.

There was a silence before Riku whispered, "If I don't agree, you'll hurt them?"

"Yes dear," his mother said sweetly.

"But if I do, you'll do it anyway?" Riku said, his voice a little louder.

"They will have to be punished," the longhaired cousin agreed.

"Then why should I agree?"

"Because if you don't they'll be tortured until they die," Kadaj said sweetly.

My hand slid free and I reached over, grabbing one of the surgical knives off the table. The others hadn't noticed me yet and that suited me just fine. I rolled back over and handed Cloud the knife since I couldn't reach his restraints. I began to unhook the rest of mine.

I saw Riku glance at me briefly and then look away, toward the wall so it would seem like he was weighing his options.

Kadaj grabbed Sora's chin and turned it toward Riku, "Come now brother, he's your best friend. Would you really condemn him to death?"

I could see Riku swallow hard. Just hang on; I'm almost free.

"I…" Riku whispered.

"Yes brother?"

He bit his lip.

"Come now son, hurry it up."

One more leg…

"I…"

Almost Riku, almost…

Everything went black.


	13. Chapter 13

I... can't write fight scenes... I should really look into that... Everything important is in ch. 1

* * *

"What the hell?" Sephiroth demanded.

"Who turned off the lights?" Kadaj hissed.

"Calm yourself cousin, it's probably just a minor black out."

"Blackout my ass," Xemnas snarled, "Since when do police stations loose power?"

That's a very good question, one I had been wondering myself.

"Someone find the light switch!" The woman snapped.

There was the sound of someone moving. No, two some ones moving. One was moving along the wall toward Sora and Riku.

_Cloud_.

He was buying us some more time. He must have escaped while I was focused on getting myself free. I felt the restraint in my hand and undid it as quickly as I could with no light to guide me.

"Where is that damn thing?" one of the cousins hissed from somewhere behind me.

"Next to the door," Kadaj drawled.

"Well I can't find that either!" the cousin snapped back at him.

"Don't cry Loz," the other cousin said.

"I'm not crying!" Loz said, his voice a little thick.

What a weird family.

I carefully lowered myself to the ground and reached out for Cloud's table. I found it and moved along it. Yes, Cloud was definitely free. From his table I found my way to the wall and let out a mental sigh of relief.

Someone bumping my arm made me bite my lip, that is, until I felt a very familiar spike touch my forehead.

Sora had frozen when he bumped me, too afraid to move. I carefully took his hand and slowly felt him relax once he realized it was me.

"Ah ha! There's the door!" Loz said, triumphantly.

"Good, now find the switch," Sephiroth said, sounding annoyed.

Sora nudged me forward and I moved slowly along the wall. I had no idea what was or wasn't in front of me. From what I could tell, Loz (and the door) were forward and to the left somewhere.

There was a sudden dip in the wall and I came to a stop. I felt the wall and found it was an alcove. Deciding this was our best bet I slipped into the alcove and we all pressed ourselves against the wall, waiting for the blinding light to sweep over us.

"There!"

A second later the room was bathed in light. Cries of protest came from the rest of Riku's family since they had not been ready for it.

We had been.

I could now see that we were on the other side of the lockers where they kept the dead bodies. Just to our left were indeed Loz and the door. Cloud moved first and Sora, Riku, and I were quick to follow. Loz was out of our way and the door was open before the others realized what was happening.

"They're escaping!" the woman screamed as we bolted through the door.

There were so many hallways and so many choices. We took a sharp left and took the first turn after that. If we kept zigzagging we stood a chance of loosing them.

Halls upon halls and I was sure that we had run through the same one at least twice. It was really too bad none of us worked here; we might have had an idea of where to go.

"Stairs," Sora whispered and pointed.

We veered quickly and sprinted as fast as we could up them. Three flights of stairs later we came across a door and threw it open.

We nearly tumbled into the office area of the PD and received many startled looks for it. We ignored them though and started weaving through people and cubicles.

"Watch it!" someone yelled as I bumped into them, but I paid no mind.

It was starting to look familiar now. We were coming up on the hallway where the interrogations were held.

"I wish I had a weapon," Cloud said quietly.

"I believe that makes four of us," Riku replied and Sora and I both nodded our agreement.

"I want a gun for my next birthday Cloud," I said, mostly serious but partly joking.

"Consider it done," Cloud replied and turned the next corner.

A gunshot rang out behind us and Riku inhaled sharply before going to his knees. The rest of us skid to a halt and I could see that a bullet had caught him in the thigh.

"No running now," the longhaired cousin said, waving a finger at us.

Figures, we were in the fucking PD and there wasn't anyone around to help us.

We were all breathing too hard and my hand was starting to hurt again. With Riku shot there was no way he would be able to keep running. We really needed-

A knife flew through the air heading straight for Riku's cousin. The man ducked it and a very familiar rooster crow came from behind us. It took every ounce of restraint I had to not turn around and make sure that I wasn't hearing things.

"Roxas!" Axel called and this time I did turn, and it was a good thing too since he had thrown my keyblades at me. I caught them and threw one to Sora who caught it with a practiced ease.

"I feel better now," Sora said, twirling the blade.

"I second that," I said, holding the blade in a defensive position.

Axel came up on one side of me and Peter came up on the other. Sora stepped up next to Peter and Cloud moved back a little, taking Riku to a safer place. The longhaired man smiled at us.

"Let us begin."

He lunged forward so fast that I had trouble following his movements. Apparently I wasn't the only one as we all decided it best to move out of the way. He slid right between us and Peter jumped to his feet.

"This way!"

Axel, Sora, and I were quick to follow him and footsteps behind us told me the man was following as well. We rounded a corner and found ourselves in the main area of the PD where I was more than a little shocked to see a battle already in motion.

The Lost Boys were shooting things from on top of the light fixtures with their slingshots. Aladdin was in a sword fight with Kadaj and Seifer of all people was battling it out with Sephiroth. Where on earth they had got their weapons was something I was going to have to debate at another time since the man had caught up to us.

"There you are Yazoo, we thought you might have gotten lost," Loz called from where he was fighting with Rai.

Yazoo smiled, "Oh no, I found them."

"Then get rid of them!" Xemnas called from where he was fighting with Demyx and Zexion.

Sora, Axel, Peter, and I all ducked when we heard the gunshot go off and I heard the bullet ricochet off something.

"Heads up!" Lock called and he, Shock, and Barrel dumped bags of snakes and other creepy crawlies onto the crowd below.

This was insanity.

I swung myself to my feet and met Kadaj's sword. He had been able to get away from Aladdin who had been distracted by an attack from Riku's mom. Sora spun to attack Yazoo with Peter covering him. Gunshots and all sorts of other noises were pounding in my ears, but I didn't have time to focus on them.

This was where it all had to end, one way or another.

I wasn't sure where Axel had disappeared too, nor was I really sure when he had left my side. I was too focused on stopping the onslaught of attacks that Kadaj was throwing at me.

He was a skilled fighter; I'd give him that. Luckily for me, I was a skilled fighter as well or I'd have been dead some time ago. I blocked another attack, but saw too late that he had shifted his aim a little. I hissed as I felt the sword skim its way across my arm and Kadaj smirked at me.

"Losing your touch Roxy. This is where you will die."

I snarled at him, "Don't call me that."

I shifted my weight and pushed against his sword hard enough to push him back far enough for me to swing my blade. I swung it, but he met it and we were caught in a stalemate, neither of us wanting to be the one to push off.

"Roxas!" Demyx called.

I didn't have to turn this time; I just held out my hand and caught Sora's keyblade. I smirked at Kadaj.

"Playtime's over."

I brought my other blade around to attack his open person, forcing him to jump back and undo our stalemate. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Sora disarm Yazoo and lunge at him. I smirked and lunged at Kadaj who went into a series of back flips and spins to avoid my blade.

He eventually bumped into a wall and scowled, slicing at me with his blade. I caught his blade with one keyblade and slid the other to his throat.

"Game over."

* * *

It took the police about an hour to break up all the fights and get everyone to put their weapons down.

Now, when I say 'police' I mean everyone except Leon, Vincent, and Zack. They had showed up sometime while I was fighting with Kadaj and had jumped in to help us fight.

They had also seemed rather reluctant to drop their weapons when they were asked to.

Seifer and Leon now had matching scars running across their faces (courtesy of Sephiroth). Axel had been stabbed in the leg. Demyx had started to spasm from being shocked by Loz who had snuck up on them while they were fighting Xemnas. Rai had been knocked out but had come to a few minutes ago and seemed alright. The cut across my arm was going to need stitches, but I didn't really care.

Sora had a few cuts, but was otherwise alright. Cloud had wrapped up Riku's leg so that he wouldn't loose too much blood and had helped him to and ambulance once they arrived.

We were held for questioning for about three hours, but we hardly said anything. Sora, Cloud, and I told them how we woke up here, but that was about all they were getting out of us.

Who cared what happened? A bunch of escaped convicts attacked and we fought back. What, is that against the law too?

Each and every one of us was sent to the hospital after they were done questioning us. Even those who weren't bleeding were sent.

Something about them not looking healthy? I donno why on earth they would think the Midgar kids don't look healthy.

Yes, that was sarcasm in case you didn't catch that.

I, personally, just wanted something to eat and to get some sleep. As I followed Cloud, Sora, Zack, Leon, and Vincent into one of the waiting ambulances I couldn't help but think that the seats would make a wonderful place to sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

Last chapter. I will have an epilogue that I'll post tomorrow. Everything you need to know is in ch. 1. Enjoy.

* * *

"Alright, I have a question for you."

"Yeah?"

"How the hell did you guys figure out where we were?"

Axel and I were sitting with a group of others in the waiting room. Who we were waiting for was up for debate, but the point was we were waiting.

"Well…" Axel said, scratching the back of his head, "We kind of guessed."

"Guessed?" I repeated.

"Well yeah, I mean they couldn't have taken you far since you hadn't been missing long. I think what really made us think you were somewhere at the police station was Jenova."

"Who?" I asked, confused.

"Riku's mom, Jenova. See, one of your neighbors had seen her go into your house. Vincent, Zack and Leon worked with her at the station so when the neighbor described her they knew who she was. Hiding in plain sight is the best way to hide. Guess we got there a little late though," he said, shooting me an apologetic look.

I glanced down at my bandaged hand and shook my head, "Actually it was rather good timing."

"What else are you thinking?" Axel asked knowingly.

"I just… I don't understand it. I know that Leon, Vincent, and Zack would never of let you all come, so… why?"

"Why what?"

"Did everyone come? I mean, even Seifer came and he hates me. Why risk themselves to save us?"

"They're your friends. You know the ways of the street kids; we look out for one another. You brought them here Roxas, you treated them like they belonged. You never looked at them like they were weird or like they were below you."

"Neither did you," I said, looking up at him.

"They respect you Roxas, they trust you. I donno what went down in Midgar, but I do know that you would have had to play the middleman. They wouldn't have talked to the others and we both know that. There's something about you that makes people want to help you."

I gave him a disbelieving look, "Even Seifer?"

He paused at that, "Well, maybe he was just pissed about being kicked out of his home."

I snorted at that, then frowned a little, "But-."

"Look at it like this. If it had been Peter, or Mulan, or Chip, or any of the others, Seifer included, that had been kidnapped, would you have rushed in to save them?"

"Well yeah-."

"Why?"

I paused at that, "I… because they needed help."

"Then maybe that's all that matters."

* * *

"Did you see? Did you see?" Alice asked as she came running into the hospital room that Sora, Riku, and I occupied.

"See what?" Sora asked looking up from the clipboard he was using to do his homework on.

"This!" Alice said, holding out what was probably today's newspaper.

I took it from her, setting down my own clipboard and homework, and flipped the paper open. There, on the front page, was a picture that was taken sometime during the battle at the police station.

"Read it!" Alice encouraged and I smiled a little.

"Alright, alright..." I skimmed the headlines, looking for the one that went with the picture, " 'Midgar Street Kids Help Bring Down Escaped Criminals: Scandal in the Police Force'. Oh, this should be good."

Riku shifted on his hospital bed so that he was sitting upright, "Well, keep reading it."

" 'Last week's escaped criminals were caught and brought back to prison by a group of local teens and a large group of street kids from Midgar. It is still unknown just how the street kids arrived here, but it seems we're lucky they did. One might recall that the escaped criminals had been imprisoned two years ago for multiple charges, which include, but are not limited to, murder and child abuse.

" 'Investigators on the case (Leon (Squall) Leonheart, Zack Fair, and Vincent Valentine) said they were watching over the people that the criminals had gone after two years ago while working the case. They said that they had discovered there was someone in the police station that was working with the escapees and immediately stopped relaying information to them.

" 'They discovered such when they stumbled across plans made by the first escapee (Kadaj Tsuchi) to release all the others as well. They informed the department of this as soon as they discovered it and the rest broke out a few hours following.

" '"The real questions on everybody's mind are where did these kids come from and why did they help bring down these criminals?" said the police chief in an exclusive interview, "I'm sorry to say that I don't know myself." '."

Riku snorted at that, "Of course you don't you weren't in on it."

Alice was bouncing with excitement, "Please keep reading."

"Haven't you read it already?" Sora asked, confused.

Alice shook her head, "I don't know how to read."

A sad look crossed Sora's features so I decided to continue reading, " 'Despite the mystery surrounding them, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that these kids were definitely part of the action. Eyewitnesses say that they saw the group storm the police department baring weapons of all sorts. Some thought that they were trying to set more people free and were quick to follow only to discover the very people everyone was searching for locked in a deadly battle with a bunch of under aged kids.'"

"We are not under aged," Sora cut in, "We're adults thank you very much."

"They also left out the fact that Cloud, Leon, Zack, and Vincent were there," Riku offered.

I shook my head and started reading again, " '"It was the most frightening thing I had ever seen," an eyewitness said, "Such fierce determination, those kids were fighting to kill!" Many other eyewitnesses agreed that it did look as though the kids would have killed had it come down to it, though many said that in their defense they did have people trying to kill them.

" 'This led many to question the ways children are raised in Midgar. Well-known troublemakers and newcomers to Destiny Islands (Roxas Hikari, Axel Netsui, Demyx Mizu, Zexion Genkaku, Hayner Ganko, Olette -last name unknown-, Pence Tabemono, and Namine Genijutsuka) also came from Midgar. What made people from this place so prone to fighting? Our government went to find out.'"

"Uh oh," Alice whispered and I nodded my agreement.

" 'Well-known troublemaker', huh?" Riku asked with a smirk.

"I donno what they're talking about," I said innocently and Sora took the paper from me.

" 'The state of Midgar left much to be desired. Half the city was nothing but rubble and the other side was crawling with gangs. Many people were stopped and asked about the street kids and many sneered and turned away. Called them a nuisance and hoped they would stay on their side of the city. 'Their side of the city' had no shops, food, electricity or even plumbing in most places. Some of the kids who appeared in Destiny were questioned about their home and many told us that they were living in the run down houses or, in some cases, in the sewers below the city. They admitted that they had to fight and sometimes kill the gang members in order to eat, but they all took care of one another and made sure that everyone got something to eat.

" 'Completely appalled by this discovery, officials began to question the people who had taken in the previously mentioned Midgar kids. One of them had actually been to Midgar and said that he spent a few days living with the kids and could attest to their claims.'"

"Cloud," Sora, Riku, and I said in unison.

Sora turned back to the paper and continued to read, " 'With this disturbing news out in the open a group of people was sent to search for any street kids that may not have come with the group that has already arrived. They said that they were unable to find anyone but Zack Fair (member of the police force who had also spent a few days living with the kids) laughed and told them they never would. The kids didn't trust any adults and had more hiding places then they could ever find.

" 'Our government is now going to monitor Midgar and remove any kids that they can find from it. All of them will be placed into foster homes and orphanages to be taken care of properly. The children who are already on Destiny have already secured spots in many homes as a reward for their bravery.' Oh man! Did you hear that?"

I smiled widely and looked at Alice, "You guys are going to be taken care of from here on out."

The girl's eyes widened and tears welled up in her eyes, "You mean it?"

I nodded, "Either in a home or an orphanage. Either way it's better than the Midgar streets."

Tears fell down her face and she covered it with her hands. Silent sobs shook her shoulders. None of us could do anything but smile sadly as we watched her.


	15. Epilogue

Here's the last chapter. Thanks to everyone who read. Everything you need to know is still in ch. 1.

* * *

"All clear!"

"This one too!"

"Man, did this place get bigger? I don't remember there being so many choices..."

"That's not possible, you know that, right?"

"Definitely smells worse than I remember."

"Don't be such a girl!"

"For your information-."

"Shut up Riku."

"Ooh, that's a nice shade of red Sora."

"No one asked you Axel."

"You know, with as feminine as Riku is I'd always suspected-,"

"Hello! Older brother within earshot! New conversation please!"

"Aw, lighten up Cloud."

"Shut up Reno."

I snorted and carefully picked my way through a slightly collapsed church. The church had apparently been in such a state for quite some time as there was a whole meadow of yellow and white lilies growing in it. I heard a small noise and turned. I gave a small smile when I spotted a few kids in the corner, clearly having been scared by our arguing.

"Hey, it's alright, I'm not gonna hurt you."

There were three of them, ranging from about three to seven I'd say. They didn't look like they'd been out here very long, but they were definitely scared.

I kneeled down so that I was closer to their level, "Listen, we want to help you. We're going to take you to a new home, alright?"

The oldest of them looked at me hopefully, "You promise?"

"I promise we will get you out of here and to someone who will take care of you. That's what we do."

"...Alright," the boy said, picking up the youngest one a bit awkwardly.

I smiled and carefully led them back out of the deteriorating building. The three froze upon seeing the rest of my group standing there.

"It's ok," Sora said with a smile, "we won't hurt you."

I glanced around at the rest of the kids we had acquired. There were still an alarmingly large number of them, but it was getting better. Once every few months a group of us flew out here and checked to see if we could find any more kids. This was our third time out and I would guesstimate that we had about ten of them with us now.

It was depressing on some level.

"At least they're not very creative in their hiding places," Riku said tiredly.

"We still have to check the underground," Axel pointed out.

"You're on it Roxas," Reno said, clearly stating that he wasn't going to do it.

"You know about the underground?" one of the little girls spoke up.

"Yeah," Demyx said with a smile, "See Axel, Zexion, Roxas, and I all used to live here," he pointed to each of us in turn.

"I'm not going into the underground by myself, that would take forever," I stated, my arms crossed.

"We still have to do the Forgotten City too," Cloud added.

"Why don't you four," Sora pointed to Axel, Zexion, Demyx, and myself, "take the underground. The rest of us will split up what's left of the above ground."

We nodded and went our separate ways.

* * *

I jumped down the second half of the ladder and pulled a flashlight out of the bag on my back. The others followed, landing near silently around me.

"Split up?" Zexion offered.

I nodded and they all pulled flashlights out of their own bags. I wound my way through the underground and couldn't help but think about how much everything had changed. Three years ago I left this place and my whole life got flipped upside down.

Then a year ago it happened all over again.

Sora and I both managed to graduate (despite the fact that we _still_ have no idea how on earth you are supposed to solve those math problems) and were now in college with everyone else. Sora and Riku were definitely an item (much to the joy of their new fangirls) and Axel and I...

I felt myself go red at the thought. I shook my head a little; yes, we were definitely together (again, much to the joy of _our_ new fangirls).

The Midgar kids dropped in and hung out with us from time to time, but mostly stuck to themselves. Alice and Peter were the ones who I talked with the most and they kept me updated on what everyone was up to.

Most of them were in some serious therapy, but Alice swears they were all making great progress (her included), but she said that for some reason the stupid purple cat that could turn invisible refused to leave her alone.

They're perfectly sane, really.

I sighed as I searched every nook and cranny of the underground and was unable to find anyone. It was both a relief and a worry. Either there really was no one down here or I was losing my touch.

"You jump out of those shadows and try to scare me and you'll be on the couch for a week."

Axel pouted at me and walked out of his hiding place, "You're no fun Rox."

"So I've been told," I agreed, still focused on looking for the kids.

Axel, it seemed, had other plans. He grabbed me and pushed me against one of the walls before attacking my neck.

I groaned.

"Dammit Axel, you really need to stop doing that."

"Aw common, you know you like it Rox."

I huffed at him and he just grinned. It never worked to get mad at him. I sighed.

"We are supposed to be working you know."

"All work and no play is boring."

"I do believe we played most of last night if you recall."

It was Axel's turn to go red, "If you're going to be mean then I won't let you top anymore."

"Since when do you let me? You know full well I can make you want it."

There was a light clearing of the throat behind us and we both turned to see Zexion. It was my turn to go red again.

"As interesting as your sex life may be, we are here for a reason," Zexion said.

"Square's clear," I muttered.

"So is Riverside," Axel said calmly.

"Then let's head toward Demyx, he's in the Forgotten City and the others are heading there anyway."

We nodded and followed Zexion, having a near silent, but playful, argument the whole way.

* * *

"Welcome home," Tifa said from the kitchen, where the wonderful smell of food was coming from.

"You know, you really shouldn't make a habit of this," Cloud said, moving toward the kitchen while Riku, Sora, and I went off to change clothes and leave our bags in our rooms.

I sighed happily as I slid into clean clothes; going to Midgar always left me feeling so dirty.

"Hey Roxas?"

I glanced over at Sora as he slid his shirt over his head, "Yeah?"

"Are you happy with the way things worked out?"

"Well... I'm happy with the way things are now, but there are some things I wish happened differently."

"But you're happy?"

"Sora, what does it matter?"

He gave a small shrug, "I just haven't seen you use that sad smile of yours in a while. You're smiling for real now."

"So are you," I replied and walked out of the room before he could demand what that meant.

I headed down the stairs to see that a whole bunch of other people had showed up. It had become something of a tradition for Tifa to cook us dinner while we were in Midgar and for there to be a mini party when we got home. I maneuvered my way through the room to where I could see Aladdin, Peter, and Alice sitting. I dropped down next to them and Aladdin turned to me.

"How many did you find?"

"Twelve," I replied, "We went down in number."

"That's good to hear," Peter said and smiled. A real smile.

I guess we all were smiling for real this time around.


End file.
